Samsung unveils new Windows phone, Omnia M

Samsung has unveiled its latest Windows Phone, Omnia M. Samsung Omnia M comes with a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, is powered by a 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor coupled with 384 MB RAM.

It has a 5 megapixel rear camera, and an additional front-facing VGA camera for video chat. The battery is 1500 mAH. On storage front, Samsung Omnia M offers 4 GB internal space.Omnia M sports Chat On messenger and Samsung All Share which allows users to play films, games, or any other media directly on a TV.

Additionally the device will get 25GB of free storage on Microsoft Sky Drive and will also include the mobile version of Microsoft Office.

Samsung has not revealed the launch date for the phone, it has, however, said Omnia M will first ship to Europe and then to the rest of the world.

According to reports, the phone is likely to be priced around Rs 11,000.

Yahoo chief Scott Thompson steps down over fake college degree row

Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Scott Thompson has stepped down after a controversy over a fake computer science college degree on his biography, the third CEO in three years to leave the Internet company struggling to define its future.

The departure is a victory for hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb of Third Point LLC, which is one of Yahoo's largest outside shareholders and brought the discrepancy in Thompson's educational background to light.

Yahoo said in a statement that its global media head, Ross Levinsohn, will be interim CEO, replacing Thompson who has left the company. It did not give a reason for his exit but said the board had settled a proxy battle with Third Point and will nominate three of its slate of four candidates to Yahoo's board.

Nepal plane crash: 11 Indians among 15 dead

Fifteen people including eleven Indian pilgrims were killed when a private plane crashed after hitting a hill top while trying to land at the high-altitude Jomsom airport in Nepal on Monday.

Eleven Indian nationals, two Danish nationals and two Nepalese crew member were killed in the crash. The rescuers have so far recovered nine bodies from the wreckage. Six people on board, including a crew member and five Indians, have been rescued alive from the crash site.

Apple rumored to be acquiring German TV maker Loewe

Apple is said to be in negotiations to acquire German manufacturer of HDTV s, Loewe AG. As per reports in Apple Insider, the final decision could be announced as early as the end of this week.

Apple is reportedly offering 87.3 million euros (112 million dollars) for the company, which is nearly 50 percent premium over the firm's valuation of 58.79 million euros (76 million dollars), based on Friday's closing price.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on its own TV set. Acquiring an existing player could be one way for Apple to build the expertise required to design and manufacture televisions, and Loewe would be a perfect fit. Loewe, like Apple, is seen as a manufacturer of premium products, focusing on elegant design backed by a strong supply-chain.

Nokia PureView 808 might be priced at Rs. 29,999 in India

Nokia has already announced to launch PureView 808 in India this month. The smartphone today got its first pricing leak thanks to Nokia India Store. According to the information in the store website source code, this smartphone with 41MP rear camera could be priced at Rs. 29,999 in the country.

While, there is no confirmation, the price is in-line with company's previous statements suggesting a high-end pricing.

Originally showcased at Mobile World Congress, Nokia PureView 808 features a 1.3 GHz single-core processor, 512 MB of RAM and 16GB of on-board memory that is expandable using a microSD card. However, the USP of the smartphone is the 41-megapixel camera sensor that has been developed after years of research and uses an interpolation technique to pack 5 pixels into 1.

Google doodles Keith Haring's 54th birthday

Today, Google has replaced its usual homepage logo with a new artistic logo to commemorate the 54th birth anniversary of Keith Haring. The doodle uses normal Google colors - blue, red, yellow and green, but it has been created in a way, which looks pleasing and makes the viewer feel energized in the first look.

If you notice, you will find that the doodle features a bunch of people dancing and celebrating. And every element in this doodle has something to express. The first 'O' in the Google doodle looks like a superman, who is trying to fly high. The dance moves in the doodle can make you think - for a moment - that these hippies have gathered to dance in someone's birthday party. Oh! Keith Haring's 54th birthday.

But if you observe the doodle carefully, you will get the feel of street dancing, and interestingly these dancers form the today's doodle, which looks colorful and lively.

Chinese passports to have electronic chip

China will soon start issuing a new type of passport that will contain an electronic chip to record the passport holder's personal information.

According to the ministry of public security, the new passports will look similar to traditional ones but the electronic chip will contain the holder's name, date of birth, photo and fingerprints, Xinhua reported.

Under preparation for three years, the new passports will be available from May 15.

Indian Americans in Forbes Midas List

Nine Indian origin entrepreneurs feature in this year's Forbes Midas List of technology's best investors for fueling a bull market for hot young companies.

Heading the Indian-American list is Grey lock Partners' Aneel Bhusri at number 25 (15 in 2011). Bhusri is co-CEO of Workday, the cloud-based financials and human resources software company.

Four-time consecutive Midas member Rob Chandra of Bessemer Venture Partners comes next at number 28 (26 in 2011). Chandra, who had a string of IPOs on India public markets, has two late-stage companies in India-based Bharat Matrimony and Summit Microelectronics.

Sameer Gandhi of Accel Partners is ranked 33rd (81 in 2011). His 2008 Series A investment in file-sharing company Drop box is doing quite nicely going by the rumored $4 billion valuation on the 2011, forbes noted. His current investments include growth investments in an India online shopping site called Flipkart.

Khosla Ventures' Vinod Khosla follows at number 34 (71 in 2011). An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumunus, Khosla is known for off-the-beaten-path clean-tech investments.

Khosla's passion for social entrepreneurship led to an investment in SKS, the Indian micro finance lender he funded in 2006 that went public in 2010, Forbes said.

Other Indian-Americans on the Midas list include Battery Ventures' Neeraj Agrawal at 36 (51 in 2011), Mayfield Fund's Navin Chaddha (46), Bain Capital Ventures' Ajay Agarwal (95), Greylock Partners' Asheem Chandna (96) and Accel India's Subrata Mitra (99).

First Samsung Galaxy S III commercial released

Samsung has revealed the first television commercial for its Galaxy S III smartphone. Part of the company's big marketing push for the smartphone; it will go on air soon in various countries around the globe.

Company had officially announced the Galaxy S III yesterday night at press event in London and it is set to debut in India early next month. It features a big 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD display, 1.4GHz quad core processor and 8MP camera.

The TV commercial emphasizes of phone's natural interactions and how it follows your every move.

Samsung Galaxy S3 to be launched today?

Samsung is likely to launch its most talked about smartphone and the latest model of the Galaxy series- Samsung Galaxy S3 on Thursday.

If news leaks on the internet are to be believed, the Korean tech giants will launch Galaxy S3 in two colours- Blue and White.

According to reports, the smartphone is expected to feature a 4.8-inch display as opposed to the rumours stating that a 4.6-inch display will be used.

Other rumors say that Galaxy S3 will run on a 1.8GHz dual core processor featuring an Exynos chip and may come equipped with a 12MP primary camera.

Oracle not ready for a settlement with HP

An Oracle Corp attorney ruled out a settlement with Hewlett-Packard Co in a bitter lawsuit over the Itanium microprocessor, a day after the judge refused to resolve the case for either side before trial.

At a hearing in a San Jose court on Wednesday, Oracle attorney Dan Wall said a settlement of the lawsuit "isn't going to happen."

Oracle said in a court filing last week that HP is seeking about $4 billion in lost profit damages from Oracle, which argues that HP's claims are merit less.

Oracle decided to stop developing software for use with Itanium last year, saying Intel Corp made it clear that the chip was nearing the end of its life and that Intel was shifting its focus to its x86 microprocessor.

But HP argues that Oracle and HP had agreed that support for Itanium would continue, without which the HP equipment using the chip would become obsolete.

HP said that commitment was affirmed when it settled an earlier lawsuit over Oracle's hiring of former HP Chief Executive Mark Hurd. HP sued Oracle in California state court last year, calling Oracle's recruitment of Hurd "anti-customer."

Oracle says HP's claims "cannot support" its damages estimate, and has counter sued HP for false advertising, asserting that HP failed to disclose the terms of its contract with Intel.

In court on Wednesday, Kleinberg compared the case to a divorce, saying "this case appears to be the end of a marriage" between the technology giants.

HP's attorneys did not directly address the possibility of settlement at the court hearing but said they would be present for the mandatory settlement conference scheduled for later this month.

Google adds new fonts, templates to Google Docs

 Google has added 450 new web fonts to Google documents. This announcement was made by the company via its blog post. To use these new fonts, you need to open a Google document and click on the Fonts menu. At the bottom, of the drop down menu you'll find an option called 'Add fonts'. You can choose from the new variety of fonts and can even add the ones you like to your existing list. The fonts look really fresh and are a respite from the traditional Arial, Times New Roman, Georgia and Verdana to name a few.

Here's a look at some key updates from the search giant in the past month:

    Launch of Google Drive to create, share, collaborate your stuff
    More options for inserting images into Docs (now even insert images from Google Drive), webcam support   and searching photos from the LIFE photo archive
    Improved support for screen readers
    Increased attachment size from 5MB to 25MB
    Increase in created docs file size from 2MB to 50MB

Google to launch online storage service for consumers

Google Inc is preparing to roll out a service to let consumers store photos and other content online, a source familiar with the matter said, pushing into a market now dominated by the likes of Dropbox and Box.

The service, to be called Google Drive, could be announced as soon as Tuesday and would be offered with both free and premium for-pay versions, the source said.

Google's "cloud storage" offering will incorporate search capabilities and allow users to store pictures, notes and other documents on the Internet and access them from any Web-connected device.

Consumers will get 5 Gigabytes of storage for free with Google Drive, while various versions with incrementally more storage capacity, topping out at about 100 Gibabytes, will be available for monthly fees, the source said. The world's No.1 Web search engine with roughly $38 billion in 2011 revenue, Google generates 96 per cent of its revenue from advertising, such as the small ads that appear alongside its search results.

Intel launches Ivy Bridge chips

Intel says PCs with chips from its new generation of processors, featuring a revolutionary design, will be available this week.

The new generation, code-named ``Ivy Bridge,'' is the first to be made with a ``3-D'' structure. Miniatures fins jut out of the plane of the chip, letting Intel cram more features into the same space. That means the chips can be faster while consuming less power.

The first chips off the production line are destined for powerful desktop computers. Intel Corp. hopes to have them in laptop computers in time for the ``back to school'' shopping season

Croma enters online shopping

Infiniti Retail Ltd, which has electronic stores all across the country under the brand name of Croma, has entered into the online retail arena with Cromaretail.com.

Through this website, customers will have the option of buying the whole gamut of products such as home entertainment systems, small appliances, white goods, computers and peripherals, mobile phones, imaging and gaming software. The site has been functional since weekend but the formal inauguration happened last evening.

Additionally, Chroma's website also offers customers to buy extended warranty at additional costs for all the electronic products.

In terms of the pricing, Croma is currently selling mobile handsets, tablets and laptops around a similar price point as those offered by Flipkart.com or Futurebazaar.com. But the same does not hold true in case of LED TVs which are cheaper on the competing sites. Cromaretail.com claims to have a typical delivery time of up to 7 days, while Flipkart.com delivers the same goods in 2-4 days and Futurebazzar.com in 3 days.

Croma is also offering the recently launched Intel-powered smartphone - Lava Xolo X900 exclusively on its website.

Microsoft Windows 8 Release Preview coming in June

Windows 8 Release Preview will be out in the first week of June, Microsoft stated at Windows 8 Dev Days event in Japan. Release Preview will be the next major pre-launch version of Windows 8 from the company after it released Consumer Preview in February.

Release Preview is expected to be more stable and will be closer to the final build, which is expected to ship in October this year.

This news comes fresh out of Microsoft's announcement of Windows 8 Editions last week, which will include Windows 8, Pro, Enterprise and RT (for ARM processors).

Facebook now boasts 901 million users, reports Q1 earnings

Facebook Inc reported its first quarter-to-quarter revenue slide in at least two years, a sign that the social network's sizzling growth may be cooling as it prepares to go public in the biggest ever Internet IPO.

The company blamed the first-quarter decline, which surprised some on Wall Street, on seasonal advertising trends.

"It was a faster slowdown than we would have guessed," said Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research Group.

"No matter how you slice it, for a company that is perceived as growing so rapidly, to slow so much on whatever basis - sequentially or annually - it will be somewhat concerning to investors if faced with a lofty valuation," Wieser said.

Facebook is preparing to raise at least $5 billion in an initial public offering that could value the world's largest social network at up to $100 billion.

Pakistan moves against airline after crash

Pakistan blocked the head of an airline whose jet crashed near the capital from leaving the country as it began an investigation on Saturday into the country's second major air disaster in less then two years.

The Bhoja Air passenger jet crashed on Friday as it tried to land in a thunderstorm at Islamabad's main airport, killing all 127 people on board. The small domestic airline, which resumed operations in March after an 11-year pause, has said the weather was the cause.

Speaking at the scene of the crash, interior minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday that Farooq Bhoja, head of Bhoja Air, had been put on the "exit control list," meaning he can't leave Pakistan. Such a ban is often put on someone suspected or implicated in a criminal case.

"The causes will be investigated, whether it was any fault in the aircraft, it was lightning, the bad weather or any other factor that caused loss of precious lives," he said. The plane's flight data recording systems, key to any investigation, have been recovered.

Soldiers and emergency workers at first light began the grim task of looking for bodies and body parts among the debris from the Boeing 737-200, which was spread out over a one kilometer (mile) stretch of wheat farms around five kilometers (three miles) from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport.

The plane was on a flight from the southern city of Karachi to Islamabad when it crashed at dusk.


The last major plane crash in the country - and Pakistan's worst - occurred in July 2010 when an Airbus A321 aircraft operated by domestic carrier Airblue crashed into the hills overlooking Islamabad, killing all 152 people aboard. A government investigation blamed the pilot for veering off course amid stormy weather.

Bhoja Air started domestic operations in Pakistan in 1993 and eventually expanded to international flights to the United Arab Emirates in 1998. The company suspended operations in 2001 due to financial difficulties but resumed them in 2012.

Google ex-CEO Eric Schmidt's salary rises to $1.25 million from $1

Google Inc's former chief executive Eric Schmidt received a bump in his annual salary to $1.25 million from the $1 he received in the previous year, after he became the executive chairman of the company in April 2011.

Schmidt's total compensation last year swelled to $101 million thanks to a previously announced equity award granted when he ended a 10-year stint in the top job at Google, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Schmidt ranked as the most highly compensated Google executive in 2011 by a long shot, earning more than four times the compensation of Google's next highest-paid executive.

Lava launches XOLO X900, world's first Intel-based smartphone

Lava International Ltd. has announced the launch of XOLO X900, the first smartphone in the world with "Intel Inside".

The XOLO X900 is based on Intel's smartphone reference design powered by the 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor Z2460. It features a 400 MHz GPU, capable of full-HD video encoding and playback. The phone sports a 4.03-inch 1024x600 display, HSPA+3G connectivity and a 8-megapixels camera capable of 10 pictures in less than a second.

The X900 marks a major milestone for Intel. While it has been all but synonymous with the PC industry, Intel has struggled to make its presence felt in the mobile segment, which has been dominated by rivals like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. With a shift away from traditional computers to mobile devices well and truly underway, Intel needed to innovate fast or risk getting left behind.

The XOLO X900 will be available from 23rd April at a street price of Rs. 22,000

2 out of 10 spam mails come from India

Twenty per cent of the spam mails that were sent out worldwide in the quarter ended March 31, 2012, originated in India, according to a study by security software firm Trend Micro.

"The quarter's top spam-sending countries included India at 20 per cent, Indonesia at 13 per cent, South Korea at 12 per cent and Russia at 10 per cent," the report said.

The report said cyber criminals are also capitalizing on the growth of Android-based smartphones and this quarter's report identified about 5,000 new malicious Android apps."With the increased use of smartphones for Internet access and the huge Android user base, the increase in attacks targeting the platform is thus not surprising," the report said.

The report also found that Apple, which is considered to have one of the safest operating systems, has the highest vulnerability."Apple surpassed Oracle, Google and Microsoft in reported vulnerabilities, with a total of 91. Oracle came in second, with 78; Google, 73; and Microsoft, 43," it said.

In recent days, Apple security saw the outbreak of Flashback Trojan (malware) which at its height infected more than 6 lakh computers.Despite some innovative efforts by Apple to eradicate Flashback, recent tallies estimate that 1.4 lakh Macs remain infected with the malware.

China approves blueprint for green vehicles

The Chinese government Wednesday approved a guideline for development of new energy-saving vehicles to ease pressure on the environment.

Electric vehicles will be prioritized in the transformation of China's auto industry, the government said after a meeting of the State Council Wednesday.

The meeting, presided by Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, noted that the country's electric and hybrid vehicles will reach 500,000 units by 2015 and five million by 2020, Xinhua reported.

China overtook the US to become the world's largest auto market in 2009 after selling 13.64 million vehicles that year.Both car sales and production volume witnessed astonishing growth in 2009 and 2010 before slowing to a 2.4-percent growth rate in 2011.

Agni-V launch: India demonstrates ICBM capability; China reacts cautiously, says India not rival

India on Thursday demonstrated the capability of launching a nuclear-tipped inter-continental ballistic missile  (ICBM) as Agni-V hit a target over 5,000 km away.With this, India has joined an elite group of nations which have mastered such technology.

The 5,000 km-range missile gives India the capability to hit targets in China, including Beijing, eastern Europe, east Africa and the Australian coast.

"This launch has given a message to the entire world that India has the capability to design, develop, build and manufacture missiles of this class, and we are today, a missile power," V K Saraswat, director general, Defence Research and Development Organisation, said.

Reacting cautiously to India's test of Agni-V missile, China on Thursday said the two countries are not rivals and enjoy "sound" relations though the sources in the Chinese establishment feel that the launch can give rise to another round of arms race in the region.

"China has taken note of reports on India's missile launch. The two countries have sound relationship. "During the (recently held) BRICS meeting (in Delhi) the leadership had consensus to take the relationship further and to push forward bilateral strategic cooperative partnership," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a media briefing in Beijing when asked about the launch.

In Delhi, the diplomatic sources in the Chinese embassy said the "Agni-V launch can give rise to another round of arms race in this part of the world."

Google CEO says Android important not critical

The Android smartphone operating system is a very important asset for Google Inc, but it is not critical, the company's chief executive officer said in courtroom testimony.
Oracle sued Google in August 2010, saying Google's Android mobile operating system infringes on its intellectual property rights to the Java programming language. Google says it does not violate Oracle's patents and that Oracle cannot copyright certain parts of Java, an "open-source," or publicly available, software language.

Page also said he was not aware of Google's policies on the copying of the intellectual property of other companies. However, he said Google did nothing wrong.

"We were very careful about what information we used and what we did not use," Page said.

In his testimony on Tuesday, Oracle CEO Ellison said his company had explored building its own smartphone before deciding against the idea.

Shares of Google were down 0.3 percent at $607.87 in afternoon trading, while Oracle fell 0.4 percent to $29.16.

Google CEO Page gets grilled in Oracle trial

Google CEO Larry Page spent nearly an hour in a federal courtroom Wednesday deflecting questions about his role in a copyright dispute over some of the technology in his company's Android software for smartphones.
In this trial, Boies is working for business software maker Oracle Corp., which accused Google Inc. of building its Android software by stealing pieces of the technology from Java, a programming platform that Oracle now owns.

David Boies, a tenacious lawyer who made headlines for grilling former Microsoft Corp. CEO Bill Gates in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. government in 1990s, spent much of his interrogation trying to prove Page and other Google executives realized that the company probably would have to pay a licensing fee to use elements of Java as far back as 2005. That's when Page orchestrated the deal to buy the Silicon Valley startup that hatched Android and brought in Android founder Andy Rubin to oversee an effort to make Google's online search engine, advertising and other services more accessible on mobile phones.

Page left the courtroom smiling, but still didn't look completely relaxed. Maybe that's because the judge told him that Oracle would probably call him back to testify before the trial is over.

Microsoft, Google win Indian developer awards

Global software major Microsoft and global search engine Google bagged the Great Indian Developer Awards 2012 for innovative products and applications at the IT developers' fifth annual summit in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 has been selected in the development environment category and Google Android in the mobile development category for the prestigious awards, instituted by Saltmarch Media, a platform of professionals from diverse sectors with an objective of informing, networking and serving them with information, evaluation and guidance to excel in their jobs.

Microsoft's Security Essentials and SharePoint 2010 also bagged awards under the security category and the content management category.

The awards recognise the product and innovation excellence of software products and tools that aid developer productivity across 11 categories in terms of functionality, usability, bleeding-edge quotient and feedback from the developer ecosystem.

'Bulletproof' case for your iPhone

A Japanese firm called Marudai has unveiled a $650 bulletproof case for your iPhone.

It could offer the perfect protection for those planning to recreate the infamous 'iPhone vs gun' videos popular on YouTube, which see amateur marksmen shooting their phones and other gadgets to see what happens to them.

The bulletproof case features an inch thick slab of steel plating the firm claims can resist a .50 caliber round, the Daily Mail reported Sunday.

However, the protection does come at a cost - apart from the high price tag, only the back of your handset is protected - and there's a hole for the camera lens drilled into the metal.

The front of the camera is protected by a thin sheet of aluminum, although the firm has thoughtfully made both white and black versions available, the newspaper added.

The iPhone is first placed into a protective case, then the steel and aluminum case is bolted together around it to secure the handset. The firm also throws in a bonus for purchasers - an empty bullet so you can show friends exactly what you are protected against.

Samsung Galaxy SIII coming in May

Samsung Electronics Co said on Monday it would unveil the third-generation of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S on May 3 in London, banking on a heavy marketing campaign heading into the summer Olympics in the city.

Samsung became the world's top smartphone maker last year on the back of strong sales of Galaxy lineups and the latest edition comes after it released Galaxy S II in late April last year.

The South Korean firm sold over 40 million Galaxy smartphones since the model was released in June 2010.

Samsung, which dominates in the top end of smartphone market along with Apple Inc, estimated earlier this month that its first-quarter operating profit would hit a record 5.8 trillion Korean won thanks to strong sales of Galaxy series smartphones.


The storage space on the new Galaxy Tab 2 will also be expandable with small memory cards. The tablets will come in two sizes. The 7-inch version will cost $250 and goes on sale April 22. The 10-inch version will cost $400 and goes on sale May 13.

Amazon's Jeffrey Bezos among lowest-paid CEOs

Amazon.com Inc paid Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey P Bezos a salary of just $81,840 last year and he received no stock awards, making him one of the lowest-paid CEOs among large technology companies.

The rest of his $1.68 million in total compensation was for security arrangements at "business facilities" and for corporate travel, the Seattle-based company said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.


As Amazon's founder, Bezos owns almost 88 million outstanding shares of the company, a stake of about 20 per cent. The value of those holdings has increased about 9 per cent this year to $16.6 billion.

Stock awards helped push Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook's 2011 compensation to $378 million. Oracle Corp CEO Larry Ellison received 2011 compensation valued at $77.6 million. At Microsoft Corp, Steve Ballmer's pay package was worth $1.38 million.

Amazon's shares fell 1.2 percent to $188.46 at the close in New York. The stock has climbed 8.9 percent this year.

Beef festival turns Osmania University into battlefield, student stabbed

A student of the Osmania university here was stabbed for supporting a beef festival organised by several student groups opposing "food fascism" in hostels, police said on Monday. The beef festival saw clashes, which saw five students being injured, and even led to vehicles being burnt.

The situation in the university was tense as violence continued in the campus past midnight with a group of students attacking the 'C' hostel and stabbing a student for supporting the beef festival. Police said the injured student was admitted to Gandhi Hospital here.

Protestors set afire a bus of state-owned Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC).

The clashes broke out Sunday night after some Dalit and left-wing student groups organised a beef festival on the campus, to highlight their demand for including beef in the hostel menu. Over 200 students and some professors attended the festival and ate various dishes made of beef.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists staged a protest against the festival and clashed with the organisers. The two groups attacked each other with stones and sticks. Five students were injured in the clashes. Two vehicles were also set afire.

Police used teargas shells and batons to disperse the clashing groups. The campus, which witnessed many violent protests over separate Telangana state during last two years, turned into a battlefield.

Tech Mahindra/Satyam may hire 10,000

India's Tech Mahindra Ltd and Satyam Computer Services Ltd, which are in the process of a merger, aim to hire up to 10,000 staff for the combined entity in 2012/13 to meet an expected rise in demand for technology services.
The companies also plan to complement their parent Mahindra & Mahindra group's move to become a major defence manufacturer, Tech Mahindra CEO Vineet Nayyar said.

Tech Mahindra bought Satyam in a government-backed auction in 2009 after Satyam's founder admitted to one of India's biggest accounting frauds.

We are trying to secure more efficiencies internally, we'll see how it works out, but I think it will be anywhere between 5,000 to 10,000 range, Nayyar said, referring to hiring plans for the fiscal year.

AICTE is Microsoft's biggest cloud computing client

Microsoft(MSFT.O) announced its biggest-ever customer for cloud computing - software that it hosts on behalf of clients and delivers over the Internet - after winning a contract to provide free services to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Microsoft, which was built on the sale of expensive software that is installed on individual computers, has been forced by competition from Google (GOOG.O) and others to branch out into the fast-growing world of cloud computing.

The U.S. software giant said  it would provide its Live@edu communication and collaboration software to more than 7 million students and half a million teachers through a deal with the AICTE.

The service, which Microsoft is providing for free as part of its education initiative, includes email, Office Web applications, instant messaging and storage.

For users, cloud computing is inexpensive and simple, because it removes the need to spend time and money on installing software and managing servers.

Large government departments are prime targets for vendors such as Microsoft and Google.

Sony launches Android-powered wristwatch

Sony has released an Internet-linked wristwatch powered by Google-backed Android software.

SmartWatch gets online by connecting wirelessly to a wearer's Android smartphone using Bluetooth technology, according to Sony.

The high-tech timepiece reminiscent of one worn by classic comic strip detective Dick Tracy was priced at $150, available online and at Sony stores.

"SmartWatch provides access to live content and entertainment on the go," said Sony Mobile Communications customer unit president Paul Hamnett, who billed it as the first in a series of gadgets to "expand the smartphone's reach."

SmartWatch can switch from displaying time to acting as a touchscreen interface for smartphone information.

Vibrations or alerts flashed on the 1.3-inch (3.3-centimeter) screen can signal incoming calls and wearers can glance at their wrists to peruse email or text messages as well as Facebook or Twitter updates by friends.

Infosys freezes salary increments

Infosys, the IT bellwether, delivered a shocker on Friday when it announced to its shareholders that there would not be any increment for the time being for its 1,49,000 employees.

Infosys failed to meet its own growth guidance for the just concluded quarter and has given a lower-than-expected growth projection for fiscal 2013. "This is the time to focus only on business. All stakeholders ask for one thing and that is growth. In the current environment, leadership has to focus only on growth.

Today morning after our management council meet we announced that there will be no hikes, of course, employees will understand," said Nandita Gurjar, head of HR. Infosys said markets are volatile and this would not be the right time for wage increase.

"We will give a raise when we have more comfort on business," said V Balakrishnan, CFO of the firm. Last year, the firm had given an increment of 10-12%.

The recruitment and hiring experts, however, refuse to buy this assurance especially when another IT firm, albeit a smaller size, iGate-Patni that has also announced its results on Friday, decided to give a 10% raise to its employees. "It is time these companies start serving their employees and not their shareholders," said S Kandula, HR Head, iGate-Patni.

This is not the first time that the company has announced zero increments. In 2008, Infosys had announced zero increments but, in the middle of the year gave a 10% raise to all.

Infosys has a gross hiring target of 35,000 for the year. The company will give out 16,000 promotions this year, as against around 18,000 last year.

US IT Law to impact Exporters


In a recent development, U.S. has passed new Unfair Competition law which impacts manufacturers worldwide exporting to U.S. In an effort to create level playing field between competing manufacturers globally, some of the US States have passed a new unfair competition law which allow only those manufacturers to export and sell, either directly or indirectly through third parties, if they can provide proof of using genuine hardware & licensed software for their business. The law could have serious implications for Indian exporters to US, noted FICCI.

 While, the first laws were passed in the States of Washington & Louisiana on 4th November, 2011, Attorney Generals of 39 U.S. States have signed a resolution to combat unfair trade practices in manufacturing by preventing usage of illegal or stolen IT (i.e. non-genuine & unlicensed software), which provides an unfair advantage in the market place. The Attorney Generals have also urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider a Federal Unfair Competition Law to prevent IT theft. The new unfair competition laws, passed in two states currently, apply to all manufacturers who sell products in these US States, irrespective of the jurisdiction, and aims at preventing unfair competition between IT compliant manufacturers versus the non-compliant competing ones, who use illegal IT, knowingly or unknowingly.   Usage of IT in manufacturing is increasing by leaps as bounds and is playing a central role in driving efficiency, productivity and competitiveness. However, usage of IT is not necessary well-managed or regulated within companies, which are typically focussed on product lines leading to issues of non-compliance and unfair competition market conditions. To understand the implications of this new law and other compliances, FICCI in cooperation with FIEO, AMCHAM India, Apex Cluster Development Services and CHEMEXCIL today organised a half-day workshop in Delhi. Industry representatives from sectors like chemicals, garments, textiles, steel, automotive, electronics, engineering etc participated in the meeting.

G8 foreign ministers condemn N Korea rocket launch

Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight countries condemned the launch of a long-range rocket by North Korea (DPRK) on Friday, saying the action violated UN Security Council resolutions.The statement also called for North Korea to abandon all its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and to cease uranium enrichment activities.

Infosys to hire 35,000 this fiscal

Country's second largest IT firm Infosys on Friday said it will hire 35,000 people this fiscal, including 13,000 for its BPO operations.

"We are going to add 35,000 more people next year, which includes 13,000 people for the BPO operations," Infosys Member of the Board and Chief Financial Officer V Balakrishnan said.

Infosys and its subsidiaries added 10,676 employees in the fourth quarter of FY'12, while the net addition during the period stood at 4,906 people. Its total employee strength was 1,49,994 as on March 31. Infosys today reported a 27.4 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,316 crore for Q4 FY'12, as against Rs 1,818 crore in the January-March quarter of FY'11.

Infosys also plans to hire about 1,200 in the US. "In the last two years, we hired 1,200 people onsite in the US each year (who were) local hire. We are going to continue with that this year and will hire 1,200 people... local hire in the US," Balakrishnan said.

Over the past months, anti-outsourcing campaign against Indian technology companies has gained momentum in the US and European Union -- main markets for the country's software and IT service companies.

Politicians and governments in these countries have been objecting to offshoring of work by their companies to countries like India so as to retain jobs back home. Industry experts have called such criticism a political rhetoric.

Most Indian technology companies have been consistently hiring more and more in the western countries over the past few years to blunt the criticism of 'taking away' jobs. Of late, the proportion of the recruit in the US and the EU has seen a marked increase.

US whistleblower accuses Infosys of visa fraud

India's IT giant Infosys brought in Indian workers illegally to US and often abused business visa rules requiring foreign workers to be paid US market rate, a former company insider has alleged.

Infosys could just have easily found local IT specialists to do what they were bringing foreigners in to do, at a fraction of the cost, Jay Palmer, a consultant for the firm was quoted as saying by CBS.

Infosys said in a statement televised by CBS that Palmer's "allegations make for an interesting story, but it is not the facts."A judge and jury will have the final say on Palmer's accusations later this summer in an Alabama civil court case, it added.

Palmer told CBS the first thing to catch his attention was an employee that had been in the US from India several times before.He then began digging into how and why Infosys seemed to be bringing in large numbers of workers from its corporate headquarters in Bangalore into the US.

Palmer alleged the Indian workers on his team were paid substantially less than an American would have made in the same job.

When the US State Department began to limit the number of H-1B visas, Palmer said Infosys began using another type of visa, the B-1.The B-1 is meant for employees who are travelling to consult with associates, attend training or a convention. But Palmer said the employees were brought in not for meetings, but for full time jobs.

Infosys posts 27 percent Q4 profit rise

Infosys posted a 27 per cent rise in quarterly net profit on Friday, but a weaker than expected revenue outlook saw its shares tumble in early trade.

Net profit for the Nasdaq-listed firm rose to 23.16 billion rupees ($454 million) in the three months to March from 18.2 billion rupees a year earlier.

The company forecast its full-year dollar-based revenue for the new fiscal year which started April 1, at $7.55 billion to $7.69 billion, an 8 to 10 percent rise.
Analysts had been looking for a revenue outlook of up to 15 percent, and Infosys shares plunged as much as 10.86 percent to 2,451.25 rupees in early trade Friday at the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Infosys, which is closely watched by investors as a barometer for the country's technology sector, added 52 clients and a net 4,906 staff in the quarter.

Kingfisher Airlines third quarter losses widen to Rs444.26 crore

Sales declined by 15.2% to Rs1,342.32 crore; actual losses wider due to Rs213.37 crore tax credit, says analyst

Kingfisher Airlines Ltd’s third-quarter loss widened as it cut flights during the peak season and operating costs rose on high jet fuel prices and a steep depreciation of the rupee against the dollar.

The Mumbai-based airline reported a loss of Rs444.26 crore in the three months ended 31 December compared with a loss of Rs253.69 crore in the year earlier. Sales declined by 15.2% to Rs1,342.32 crore.

The airline has been cancelling more than 50 flights a day to cope with a cash crunch. These have come during the December quarter, which is considered peak season for the industry. The airline reported a 13.4% drop in departures during the December quarter to 26,757 from 30,883 in the year earlier.

Jet fuel cost was one of the main reasons for the losses. Kingfisher Airlines’ jet fuel cost soared 36.8% to Rs738.81 crore in the December quarter.

Kingfisher, which hasn’t ever reported a profit since its inception in 2005, had debt of Rs7,500 crore as on 30 September, 2011.

It posted a loss of Rs1,027 crore on sales of Rs6,496 crore for the year ended 31 March 2011, compared with a Rs1,647 crore loss on sales of Rs5,271 crore in the year before that.

Courtesy:Livemint

Microsoft, others in Google+ complaint to EU

Microsoft’s complaint underlines the mounting rivalry between the two companies.

Microsoft and several other firms have complained to EU antitrust regulators about Google’s social networking tool, two people familiar with the matter said, in a move that may prompt the EU to broaden its ongoing investigation into Google.

Microsoft and the others expressed their concerns informally, the people said, declining to provide details about the nature of the complaint about Google+ because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The European Commission declined to comment and Microsoft said it would not make any statement about “rumours or speculation”.

Facebook e-commerce the next big thing?

A group of e-commerce start-ups, backed by some of the tech world’s most pedigreed financiers, are betting that Facebook Inc can become an e-commerce powerhouse to rival Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc.

As the world’s largest social network hurtles toward a $5 billion initial public offering, it will come under more pressure from Wall Street to find new sources of profit growth and reduce its reliance on advertising, which accounted for 85% of its 2011 revenue.

Some entrepreneurs and investors increasingly think “f-commerce” - meaning e-commerce on Facebook - is the answer. Start-ups such as BeachMint, Yardsellr, Oodle and Fab.com are coming up with novel ways to persuade Facebook users to not just connect with friends on the social network, but to shop as well.

“E-commerce is a huge category with very strong tailwinds and it’s a natural move for Facebook,” said Sam Schwerin of Millennium Technology Value Partners, which owns Facebook shares and has a stake in BeachMint.
Amazon revolutionized online shopping by crunching lots of customer and purchase data to come up with relevant, personalized recommendations. In the same vein, Facebook’s combination of data, analytics and payment technology could fuel the next generation of e-commerce, Schwerin said.

Facebook declined to comment, but investors said the company understands the importance of having an e-commerce strategy.

Nokia smartphone bug hits US ambitions

Nokia said it will offer anyone who has bought Lumia 900, or will buy by 21 April, a $100 credit to their AT&T bill

Nokia has found a software bug in its Lumia 900 smartphone, its answer to Apple’s iPhone, and is effectively giving the model away until it is fixed, blunting its bid to turn around its fortunes in the United States.

Nokia’s first 4G phone, which it markets with the strapline “an amazingly fast way to connect”, can occasionally lose its data connection as a result of the bug, Nokia said.
Though still the world’s biggest volume maker of cellphones, Nokia lost the top spot in the lucrative smartphone market last year to Apple and Google, in part due to its weak performance in the United States, where its smartphones have slipped to less than a 1% market share.

The Lumia 900, which uses Microsoft’s Windows Phone software, is currently only available in the United States and is key to its comeback there.

“It’s like they stalled their engine when everybody is looking at them at the start of their race,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

It is the third Nokia phone to run the Windows operating system since it ditched its own Symbian system last year, and only went on sale in the United States through AT&T on 8 April. It is due for a wider global launch this quarter. The model won several awards at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas when it was launched in January.

Nokia said a software update to fix the problem, which was “a memory management issue” related to phone software, not to hardware, the network or the Windows operating system, would be available around 16 April.

It is offering anyone who has bought a Lumia 900 phone, or who buys one by 21 April, a $100 credit to their AT&T bill. The operator sells the phone for $99.99 with a two-year contract.

Huge quakes off Indonesia stir panic

The quake was felt as far away as Singapore, Thailand and India
A powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake and a series of strong aftershocks struck off Indonesia on Wednesday, sending people scurrying from buildings as far away as southern India, but there seemed little risk of a disastrous tsunami as in 2004.Indonesia said it was checking for damage and casualties, but remarkably no such reports had been received for several hours after the quakes, including in Aceh, the closest province and the area decimated by the disaster eight years ago.
However, some areas close to the epicentre are remote so it could take some time to find out if there was any damage

Firefox 11 available for download now


The acclaimed open source web browser, Mozilla announced the launch,the update has come just after over a month of Firefox 10’s launch.

Firefox 11 boasts of many major changes, both in the interface as well as programming, over its last version and is being touted as one of the most efficient upgrade so far. It has a Style Editor which makes web designing easies by allowing you to change the code in CSS stylesheets within the browser. The new version also allows users to migrate bookmarks, history and cookies from Google’s Chrome browser. Mozilla has further modified media controls for HTML 5

Another new feature is Tilt, a 3D page inspector view. This option allows users to see the raw code in its finished form. Other changes include support for Google’s SPDY protocol that allows faster and safer webpage loading.

Chrome wins weekend browser battle with IE


Google Inc's Chrome web browser overtook Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer (IE) to become market leader globally for the first time last Sunday, web analytics firm StatCounter said on Wednesday.
"While it is only one day, this is a milestone," said Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter's chief executive.
"At weekends, when people are free to choose what browser to use, many of them are selecting Chrome in preference to IE."On March 18, Chrome was used for 32.7 percent of all browsing, while Explorer had 32.5 percent share. When people returned to their offices on Monday, the IE share rose to 35 percent and Chrome's share slipped to 30 percent."Whether Chrome can take the lead in the browser wars in the long term remains to be seen, however the trend towards Chrome usage at weekends is undeniable," Cullen said.
On a monthly basis, Chrome's market share has surged to 31 percent so far in March from 17 percent a year ago, while Explorer has slipped to 35 percent from 45 percent a year earlier.

The market share of Firefox -- which is popular in Europe -- is globally around 25 percent.
Apple Inc's Safari is a distant number four with a 7 percent share of all browsing, with Opera at number five on 2 percent.

Can Facebook turn 800 Million users into a $100bn business?


It's said that Facebook could be worth $100bn if, as widely predicted, it floats on the stock market this year.

That would make it as valuable as Amazon (in business since 1995) and McDonald's (1940) and twice as valuable as Tesco (1929). But Facebook was launched a mere seven years ago, by then college student Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard friends.

Can a $100bn business have been created so fast? It may sound incredible, but there are reasons why Facebook just might be worth that much.

First, Google - now worth around $200bn - set a new model for Silicon Valley when it went public in 2004, the year Facebook was founded.It built a global audience before working out how to make money, proving that if you can attract a big enough audience, there will always be ways to "monetise". Ad revenue per user can be tiny and still add up to huge figures. So Facebook's current 800 million users are an extraordinarily valuable asset.

And Facebook has a couple of trump cards over Google.

It's the ultimate "sticky" site, with users spending much longer on it per session - about 30 minutes on average - than people do on Google. That's more time to see and respond to ads.

Everything Facebook is doing to develop as a business, such as the forthcoming personal Timelines, is designed to get people even more hooked.

Zuckerberg says its all about giving users better things to do. "We're not trying to make it so that people spend a lot more time on Facebook," he said. "We want to make it so the time you spend on Facebook is so valuable that you want to keep on coming back every day."

10 Most Popular Tech CEO's


1. Tim Cook, Apple
2. Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm
3. Larry Page, Google
4. Paul Otellini, Intel
5. Paul Maritz, VMware
6. Joe Tucci, EMC
7. Dan Hesse, Sprint
8. Larry Ellison, Oracle
9. Meg Whitman
10. Jeff Bezos

Facebook buys Instagram photo sharing network for $1bn


Facebook has announced it is to buy Instagram - the popular photo-sharing smartphone app.
Facebook is paying $1bn (£629m) in cash and stock for the takeover.
Instagram was only launched in October 2010 - initially just for the iPhone before being offered as an Android app last week.Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to continue to develop Instagram as a separate brand, allowing it to post to rival networks.
The app is free and allows users to apply 17 filters to the pictures they take - changing the colour balance to give the images a different feel - before they are uploaded.It has proven hugely popular. The firm says that it has more than 30 million users uploading more than 5 million new pictures every day.

SKYPE BETA ADDS GROUP VIDEO CHAT

The latest Skype beta—released today—adds support for group video calling, allowing you to video conference with up to five people simultaneously.Currently the group video chat feature is only available on the Windows version, and while it's currently free with the beta.

Urgent Opening for US IT Recruiter @ BI Techno Solutions Pvt.Ltd

US Staffing Bench Sales / US IT Recruiter (Hyderabad)

Job Description:

Good experience in marketing the Bench Consultants, regular interaction with the bench candidates, their by identifying their needs and position them to projects accordingly. Proven successful sales record in the IT Staffing and Consulting Industry. Knowledge of technology related business development and staffing services should be able to work with vendors and generate new vendors. Extensive IT Consulting Services experience in both staff augmentation and project sales. Identify, assess, prioritize, qualify and close new business opportunities

Skills required:

• Person needs to follow full Recruitment life cycle. Starting from sourcing CV, screening, negotiating rates, coordinating with clients, follow up till offer and joining of the candidate.
• Needs to market consultants at bench.
• Person need to source candidates through searches and job postings on the Internet, candidate referrals, in-house database and personal network.
• Providing the highest quality customer service to both clients and candidates.
• Must have excellent skills in alternate sourcing channels other than online job posting.
• Should have working knowledge on Dice, Monster and other US job portals.
• Should have good vendor database.
• Should have shown good outcome in the present organization.
• Should work in a team but grade individually.
• Should be available to join (if selected) in 1-5 days of notice period.
• Excellent interpersonal and analytical skills with strong ability to communicate effectively.

Education Required:

UG - Any Graduate - Any Specialization, PG - Any PG Course - Any Specialization, Post Graduation Not Required.

Urgent Opening for BDM @ BI Techno Solutions Pvt.Ltd

Business Development Manager

Job Descrption

We are looking for a passionate, talented Business Development Manager, would be responsible for building up a business through gaining new customers, accounts and generate revenue for our office. The successful candidate will be a dedicated and seasoned Business Development Manager with a proven track record selling localization services, to expand our business.

• Experience 3-5 Years
• Explaining the clients about the Web Related Services and Application Development
• Marketing Research, Tele-marketing, Online Marketing and updating the prototypes to the new clients.
• Maintaining daily reports of the clients and mailing them to the MD
• Maintaining the complete database details of the New and Existing Customers in the CRM.
• Preparing the Agreements and quotation for the clients.
• Responsible for developing product marketing plans and activities to enhance and distinguish product placement within the competitive arena.
• Visiting to the prospective customers place with Demo and explaining them with the Software Products.
• Preparing the complete Documentation of the Project and forwarding to the Project Leader.
• Need to generate the Leads from Global & Domestic ( Mainly for Software Development & Website / Portal development/ E-Commerce/CMS/SEO).
• Business Leads generation with existing & potential clients to develop and manage long-term strategic client relationship.
• Need to take care from Proposal till deal closure.

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