Online Shopping in India to Grow by 78% in 2016 and 15 Billion by 2017

Online shopping in India is estimated to grow at a superfast rate in 2016 by 78%. The rate at which it is growing is phenomenal. This is probably due to the high competition, wide presence, more opportunities, attractive discounts, and the growth of Internet-ready devices. The e-commerce phenomenon has widened globally with its penetration reaching to suburbs and remote areas, thanks to the internet. People keep searching online for sources of coupons and discounts they can apply to purchases. The retail market is expected to more than double by 2020. The eCommerce industry itself is estimated to grow to 15 billion in value and more than 100 million consumers in numbers by 2017.

Currently, there are more than 230 million internet users in India. The count is increasing at a phenomenal rate and is estimated to reach beyond 600 million users before 2020. It clearly reflects a wider gap in people not using the internet. That itself brings out the scope and a lot of opportunities including a good amount of efforts need to be made by the government and the internet and startup eco-system in India so as to increase internet penetration and usage. With this online shopping in India will automatically increase.


Yahoo and Mindshare conducted a study recently to analyze the shopping behavior of customers. The study revealed that more than 30 percent shoppers prefer online shopping to save their time, energy, and efforts that is required to spend on physically going to stores to purchase the same items. Availability of discounts and promotions is another lucrative reason for customers to buy online. Almost 28% of online shoppers are convinced with this reason. Another 21% buyers prefer online shopping because of convenience to shop anywhere, anytime.


Increasing urbanization and penetration of internet and smartphones in rural India will obviously have a positive impact on online purchases. A higher number of these transactions happen on mobile phones as compared to other electronic devices. Average online purchases were 66 percent in 2015 and are expected to rise to 78% in 2016. The credit goes to aggressive marketing of merchandise on online purchases. These online purchases include clothes, jewelery, electronics, books, health, beauty, groceries, travel, mobile phones, home decor and other items. The study has been conducted by Assocham and international firm PwC (Pricewaterhouse Coopers).

Ecommerce landscape in India is probably the most dynamic as compared to other countries of the world, mainly because of the aggressively evolving smartphone ecosystem. Couponmint, a new website offers fabulous discounts and cashback offers to their online shopping community for online shopping, bill payments etc. All the discounts and offers are validated before placing on the website. The website offers coupons, promo codes, cashback offers, and discount deals from more than 1200 online brands, stores and services in over 80 different categories. These offers are available in 9 Indian languages to increase its versatility and range. It goes with a motto - “No Bargaining, Only Couponing, Saving and Discounting!” The future of online shopping in India is evolving at a faster pace. 

Samsung Galaxy Iris Tab with Iris Recognition Technology for Digital India

Samsung introduced its new baby in Galaxy Tab family with superior features to make it more advanced, secure and reliable that goes in line with an integrated biometric solution for Aadhaar authentication aligned with the vision of Digital India envisaged by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab Iris is equipped with iris-recognition technology and is well suited for government, enterprises, corporate, and professionals. The feature-rich Galaxy Tab Iris empower merchants, traders and individuals to enjoy cashless and paperless services in various applications such as eGovernance services like passport, education, healthcare, and taxation; and in banking.

The biometric technology that is easy-to-use has been deployed in the Galaxy Tab Iris to help India spearhead its Digital India vision by the provision of technology to assure that every citizen of the country has access to financial inclusion benefits. The solution aims to act as a catalyst in government benefit programs enabling banks and financial institutions to enhance the process of an individual authentication, irrespective of language and literacy hinderances. The complete process promises to go seamlessly that will also enhance the quality of service in a defect-free manner.


Samsung Galaxy Tab Iris is Aadhaar-compliant and STQC-certified. This is yet another innovative Make for India product launched by Samsung. The advanced iris-recognition technology is embedded in a secure device to provide an enhanced integrated solution to help to solve the hurdles of using multiple devices for biometric identification.

Dr. Aloknath De, Corporate Vice President & CTO, Samsung India R&D is excited while offering this biometric-based service to the billion plus population of India enrolled in Aadhaar. With this launch, the Samsung India R&D team entered into a significant zone of technology with substantial investments in biometric technology research and thus have designed Samsung Galaxy Iris leveraging their knowledge in hardware design, security for a high-speed scan, high reliability, greater accuracy, and biometrics.


For application developers, an identity SDK comes along with the device that can help them to build financial inclusion, authentication, and payment solutions. This SDK will definitely enhance country's startup ecosystem to quickly build and launch relevant apps and services. Dr. De believes this overall offering will in turn, enhance government programs like Jan-Dhan Yojana and e-Citizen services launched under the Digital India initiative.


Sukesh Jain, Vice President, Samsung India Electronics, while announcing the launch explained this as another brilliant example of Samsung's pursuit for meaningful and purposeful innovations. Iris-technology solution has a great potential to be used as a means of directly facilitating greater inclusion in the Digital India program. The biometric authentication is a good measure in facilitating integration of financial services with the Aadhaar drive. The Galaxy Tab Iris will be able to address many such issues across platforms like finance, education, citizen services, and banking by means of improvized versatility, reliability, and usability all through a single device.


Samsung has entered the contactless technology arena with the launch of its embedded iris technology in Galaxy Tab Iris. The technology ensures unbeatable security for authentication. Aadhaar has become a prominent database for most of the government projects like Pradhan Mantri jan-Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), eHospital program, DigiLocker, National Health Mission (NHM), and many more under the unbrella of Digital India initiative to provide welfare services to citizens. In addition to this, banks, enterprises, financial institutions, educational institutions and alike are seriously adopting Aadhaar authentication in acessing public-centric services.


To access services remotely by embedding Aadhaar iris-biometric authentication capabilities, Samsung Galaxy Tab Iris will become a prominent tool. The provision will ensure a highly secure authentication and verification method and help the country transition away from orthodox authentication methods that are prone to be insecure. With the help of this tab e-KYC can now be carried out in seconds unlike the traditional KYC process that takes around a week, or more.


The Galaxy Tab Iris is UIDAI compliant and therefore can be used for child enrolment program where biometrics of the parent is taken to authenticate children for Aadhaar application. The tablet will nullify the use of multiple devices and instruments by providing an integrated, single device solution for the child enrolment process.


Biometrics technology has become a major component in the banking sector for security enhancements. The Galaxy Tab Iris is capable enough to perform as an authentication device thereby enabling banks and financial institutions to easily validate an individual's credentials for account integration with their Aadhaar numbers and also provide a supplementary level of security for banking services such as FDs (Fixed Deposits) Locker Access, etc. This iris-identification technology will also enable to reduce the time consuming paperwork, thus enabling people to enrol for banking and financial services in a paperless and secured mode. As majority of these processes can be digitized with the help of the Galaxy Tab Iris, language and literacy hurdles will no longer exist thus enabling a larger chunk of the society to avail these services while promoting inclusion and financial security.


The citizen services like e-PDS (Electronic Public Distribution System), pension schemes, MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) payments, entitlements distribution, and certain subsidy programs can be well accessed through the Galaxy Tab Iris. In the same manner, multiple citizen services like income tax filing, car registration, railway/airport passenger validation, passport issuance/renewal, property registration etc. can be performed paperless with the help of the Aadhaar based Iris technology.


All points mentioned above prove the new Galaxy Tab Iris a versatile product with a more powerful technology embarked in it. The device is quite sleek and compact with a robust design and latest technology. The dual-eye scanner enables a contactless scan and enhanced security. The 7-inch display ensures a good screen experience with a precision. The rear camera is 5-megapixel, and auto focus to click brighter pictures and scan documents. True to its commitments, it is just 327 grams in weight and 9.7 mm in width. Thus it is extremely light and slim. The features like USB OTG, Bluetooth 4.1, support for 14 local languages, 8 GB memory that is expandable upto 200 GB, 3600 mAh battery, 1.2 GHz Quad Core, and 1.5 GB RAM make it an unbeatable device. On top of it, it is available for Rs. 13,499.

6 Windows apps for Reading Unlimited Books on Windows smart phone

Celebrate love for books with 6 Windows Apps for reading books

Build your personal library with 6 Windows Apps for reading on Windows Smart Phone

If you love reading you will enjoy with these 6 Windows apps for reading unlimited books

If you love reading you can download these 6 Windows Apps for reading to build your personal library on Windows Smart Phone for unlimited reading rights at your fingertips. Books are the best friends. Today's live is quite hectic and you need some fabulous apps to read books on-the-move. April 23 is celebrated as World Book Day. An avid reader would love to enjoy reading as when possible amidst busy schedules. These apps empower you to enjoy endless reading on your smart phone any time and anywhere.

Find below a list of Windows apps that will enable your Windows smart phone to become your personal library. Here are the features and download links:

Audiobooks from Audible

At times you might not be interested in reading but listening to a book. Audiobooks from Audible is to assist you in that regard. There are more than 200,000 audio books and periodicals narrated in a pure professional manner to enjoy. The app enables you to get insider knowledge about author events and beyond with the help of Audible Newsfeed feature. You get a full control of managing listening experience with Cortana voice commands and button-free feature. 

FBReader

FB Reader can organize your books in various orders – by author, tag, series, title, genre, and so on. Searching books is quite easy. There is a built-in local library to browse books and you can edit the information as per your wish. The app also has an in-built access to most popular online libraries such as FeedBooks.

Techbooks

If you are planning a career in software or want to expand your technical skills to improve your career growth, TechBooks app is there to give you an access to technical MSDN e-books in online and off-line modes.

OverDrive

This app has more than 16,000 libraries and 10,000 school libraries. You get an access to these once you download the app in your smart phone. Besides e-books, the app also allows you borrow audiobooks and rich videos to listen to or stream. You can sync your OverDrive account on various devices so that you don't loose track of your books on any device.

NOOK

This is among the largest booksellers app across the globe. You can read any book you love to read. You can customize reading experience by viewing books with fonts, line spacing, and themes of your choice and comfort. The pages turn on a flick of finger. Nook app syncs automatically the last page you read.

Alexandra Reader

Alexandra Reader is a powerful e-book reader application to enable you to browse and share your favorite books. You can personalize font size, type, color scheme, etc. as per your choice.

Hope you enjoy reading your favorite books on your Windows smartphone and other Windows devices. Happy Reading!

Google AMP the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project – An Insight

Google AMP or the Accelerated Mobile Pages is aimed for faster mobile web experience

Google AMP will change the complete gamut of revenue through advertising

Accelerated Mobile Pages is focused on optimization of web page loading and relevant user behaviour

Google AMP or the Accelerated Mobile Pages project is aimed at faster mobile web experience. It will change the complete gamut of revenue through advertising and subscriptions. It is about focusing on optimization of web page loading and its relevant impacts on user behaviour. News access on smartphones has increased. People want to utilize their time on the move. The consumption of time for accessing news on phones is larger than other devices. The user’s expectations have changed accordingly. The user expects a faster experience. The pages have obviously to be lighter in the mobile version. But the user doesn’t want any compromise with the quality or content of the news while accessing it on mobile. That is where Google AMP project comes into picture – a project for faster and open mobile web experience by the user.

Photo credit: betsyweber via Visualhunt.com / CC BY

Most of the publishers don’t want any compromise in web page loading in a mobile so that the faster page load ensures two things. First, the probability of losing a customer reduces if the page loads with a faster pace. Secondly, if the page loads faster, consequently the readership staying intact ensures lesser risks to the opportunity of earning revenue through advertising or subscriptions. Obviously, if the pages load taking a higher amount of time, there are higher chances of users abandoning those sites completely. This seriously impacts advertisers positioned on these websites having a high risk of losing customers paying attention to their ads.

Photo credit: Ed Yourdon via VisualHunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Google AMP project was initiated in Oct last year. Accelerated Mobile Pages is a new and open source project. Its sole aim is to enhance mobile internet performance. The rich content has not to be compromised. Videos, graphics, and animations have to stay intact. With all this, the content has to load instantly keeping in mind all kind of phones, tablets, and other mobile devices. The backbone of this project is AMP HTML which is an open framework quite different from the current web technologies. It allows creating light-weight web pages thus keeping all the risks away.

Arun Jaitley Updates World In Real Time Via Twitter For Union Budget

Arun Jaitley presented his third Union budget lit up by Twitter with real-time updates

Union Minister of Finance Arun Jaitley used real-time video, infographics while presenting Union Budget 2016

As the Union Minister of Finance Mr. Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) presented his third Union budget today, Twitter lit up with real-time updates around #Budget2016 taking over timelines. The Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) aided by Press Information Bureau (PIB_India) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB_India) kept millions of citizens updated with real-time video, infographics and key highlights of #Budget2016.

Join the #Budget2016 conversation on Twitter, hear from the Government directly. https://t.co/oiiwgtRyNj

— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) February 26, 2016

#VikasKaBudget Rupee comes and goes to pic.twitter.com/UypumCTZrw

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) February 29, 2016

#VikasKaBudget Budget at a glance : Key figures pic.twitter.com/YycROLlJFd

— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) February 29, 2016

Twitter also integrated with media platforms, who innovated on real-time Twitter Tools like Periscope, Video, Polls, Q&As, and other innovative integrations to enliven the #budget2016 conversation.

LIVE on #Periscope: Discuss the #Budget2016 with the @mint_ed! https://t.co/0lE5vACPTX

— Livemint (@livemint) February 29, 2016

#ETonBudget: Live updates on #Budget2016: https://t.co/gvwsVJWJHg

Will this budget be the #Gamechanger?

— EconomicTimes (@EconomicTimes) February 29, 2016

ബജറ്റ് 2016 പ്രധാന പ്രഖ്യാപനങ്ങൾ ലഭിക്കാൻ #ബജറ്റ്2016 എന്ന ഹാഷ് ടാഗിൽ ട്വീറ്റ് ചെയ്യുക

— Manorama News (@manoramanews) February 29, 2016

#ETonBudget Join me on Periscope at 1.30 PM and get all your budget queries answered by @tkarun

— Rohini Singh (@Rohinisgh) February 29, 2016

#Budget2016 left you dazed and confused? We have the answers! #AskCNBCTV18 and we'll tell you what really happened. pic.twitter.com/xHaUB4aOid

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@rvirgo9 Here are the top 10 takeaways of #Budget2016 pic.twitter.com/TGx9SYjyoI

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@Mojitowali Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Education pic.twitter.com/Wdz79w5kMb

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@EterrnalBliss Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Digital Push pic.twitter.com/QUAK6vmFP8

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@Yashancool Here is how #Budget2016 will impact the Power Sector pic.twitter.com/uFgGTC6vlI

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@10_ssc Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Aam Aadmi pic.twitter.com/tsVeLwnr5E

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@COOL8769 Here is how #Budget2016 will impact the Telecom Industry pic.twitter.com/9BBZzAFAWp

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@DebSourobh Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Housing and Real Estate pic.twitter.com/K5PbFqwBui

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@DebSourobh Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Infrastructure pic.twitter.com/wDbrir3KCr

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@DebSourobh Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Banks pic.twitter.com/JgSbm3XFQq

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@DebSourobh Here is how #Budget2016 will impact the Telecom Industry pic.twitter.com/9BBZzAFAWp

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@vipin277 Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Housing and Real Estate pic.twitter.com/K5PbFqwBui

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

@Deep10x Here is how #Budget2016 will impact Agriculture pic.twitter.com/Xec679tVmX

— CNBC-TV18 News (@CNBCTV18News) February 29, 2016

Raheel Khursheed, Head of News & Government Partnerships at Twitter India, said “Twitter has become the go-to platform for users for all the real time information pertaining to a vast array of topics. By simplifying the Union Budget 2016 for public with the help of Twitter tools, we created a holistic and well integrated real-time budget experience for them. We saw tremendous participation from users as they engaged with the relevant stakeholders, Tweeted their views on the budget and participated in discussions.”

PM Modi (@narendramodi) and several others took to Twitter to congratulate Arun Jaitley and his team on the Budget.

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/PMOIndia/status/704241057240715266

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/ChouhanShivraj/status/704210125070839809

Twitter also equipped users with a live and public platform to engage in conversations around the Union Budget and express their views on the same.

This budget is about the dreams of the people. I congratulate FM @arunjaitley and his team: PM @narendramodi #VikasKaBudget

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) February 29, 2016

Happy with budget proposals, particularly the ones towards Agricultural and rural sectors #Budget2016 #HailArunJaitly

— Rajkumar Kattimani (@CARajkumarK) February 29, 2016

Very well balanced budget, #Growth oriented #Budget2016..Big boost to infra-Sector will boost employment and overall economy

— Ravi Gupta (@rav26051) February 29, 2016

Key trending hashtags:

●     #Budget2016

●     #VikasKaBudget

●     #UnionBudget2016

●     #ModiBudgetTest

Accounts to follow:

●     @FinMinIndia - Ministry of Finance

●     @arunjaitley - Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister

WhatsApp Divorces Blackberry OS and Many Others in December 2016

WhatsApp ends supporting Blackberry OS

WhatsApp not only ends support for Blackberry OS but many others

WhatsApp, owned by Facebook has declared its end of support for a few operating systems. These operating systems include Blackberry, Nokia Symbian S60, and Windows Phone 7.1. The company says it will impact only a handful of smartphone users. It estimates there are very few smartphone users who are having devices working on these operating systems. Facebook says it wants to move ahead with a focused approach in further development of this most popular messaging and voice application’s features. It probably is working on 80/20 rule in my opinion. By discarding 20% of the smartphone users with least used operating system will let them focus more on 80% of users. More than a billion smartphone owners actively use this app. The divorce will happen in December 2016.

Photo credit: portalgda via Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-SA

The good news is that the app will be running fine on Blackberry latest range of smartphones. It is so because the new range from Blackberry runs Android operating system. Logically, the end of support will not impact even the 20% as stated above. That was just to elaborate my opinion using 80/20 rule. It will not impact much because these are least used operating systems. They don’t come on new devices. These are legacy operating support facing an end of life. Even there are no updates released for these operating systems. The only exception among these is Blackberry 10. It was launched hardly three years back and is still being supported and developed by the company.

Photo credit: Scott Beale via Visualhunt / CC BY-NC-ND

The next upgrade of Blackberry, that is, 10.3.4 is planned to be released in the last quarter this year. The development of Blackberry 10 has been a setback for the company as it has not attracted volume churning. It could attract hardly 1% of the market though the dreams were much higher. I assume an end of life of Blackberry 10 soon. 

Suresh Prabhu Used Periscope and Twitter To Present Rail Budget 2016

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu Presented His Second Railways Budget 2016

Suresh Prabhu presented Rail Budget 2016 using Twitter to update in real time

Suresh Prabhu utilized the power of Twitter and Periscope to present Rail Budget 2016

Photo credit: _Jer_ via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC

Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister for Railways is not only being praised for an excellent Railways Budget 2016 but also for unleashing the power of technology to reach out to his audience in real-time, and that too in an interactive manner. That is the beauty of the human mind. Technology has no limits and boundaries. It is the human brain that sets the limitations based on his thoughts and capabilities. Before releasing railways budget 2016, Suresh Prabhu was seen on Periscope in the morning. He was having a breakfast chat with a large number of audience in real-time. The session was to set expectations from this year’s budget. These are few steps taking India from the status of a developing country to a developed country.

@amit_maurya01 Here are the highlights of the 2016 Railway Budget pic.twitter.com/QW7ReR9v16

— Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) February 25, 2016

Such things were never seen in all previous governments. Suresh Prabhu not only ensured to present a well-balanced, poor friendly and old-age friendly budget; but also made it a point to engage a lot of people using social media in a real-time environment. It was all interactive for the first time in the history of our country. It was presented in public symbolically than in the parliament. New Delhi Railway Station witnessed more than 100 Twitter screens broadcasting the speech and getting users the Rail Budget 2016 in real-time. It was for the first time a real-time engagement with people on a global front. People were connected at home, in office, on the move, in the country, outside country.

Want to congratulate @sureshpprabhu and the entire Team Railways: PM on #RailBudget2016 @RailMinIndia

— PMO India (@PMOIndia) February 25, 2016

It was not only broadcasting of Railways Budget 2016 and speech of the Union Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhu but also demonstration of the urge of One India by engaging all the people to such a large extent using Twitter. The minister also sent real-time infographics highlighting the key features of the budget. There was a clear cut engagement visible when a number of ministers, celebrities and a lot of other people interacted, praised, reacted and expressed their opinion on the budget.

Tweet using #RailBudget2016 & get the highlights of the budget from @RailMinIndia instantly. @sureshpprabhu https://t.co/egQfSM6ruF

— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) February 25, 2016

iZofy Astrology and Numerology App

iZofy is a scientifically designed Astrology and Numerology App

iZofy is all about Astrology and Numerology, and much beyond

iZofy Astrology and Numerology App provides good and relevant information alerts

Download iZofy App on Android to see more such shocking videos about people born on 4^th, 8^th, 13^th, 17^th, 22^nd, 26^th, and 31^st https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmQHcjbe6Og&list=PLx6IR6svqpomWEtWsqNfXpwnbpMb4enJz&index=5 via www.fromote.com/#ref=1601. If you all in the age group of 30 to 45, you must try this astrology and numerology app. But I feel it can be used by anyone belonging to any age group. The app promises to keep you engaged throughout on daily basis. The app is light to use and fast to respond. I checked the app thoroughly. The downloading is fast. Its content is quite informative and relevant. You have plenty of articles and videos to run through. This is something unique. The app is quite informative. You get your daily forecast based on astrology and numerology. The videos are really stunning. The interesting articles are updated on a regular basis. You get fresh stuff on daily basis. Installation of the app didn’t take much time. It asks your basic details. Based on your zodiac. If you all in the age group of 30 to 45, you must try this astrology and numerology app. But I feel it can be used by anyone belonging to any age group. The app promises to keep you engaged throughout on daily basis. The app is light to use and fast to respond. I checked the app thoroughly. The downloading is fast. Its content is quite informative and relevant. You have plenty of articles and videos to run through. This is something unique. The app is quite informative. You get your daily forecast based on astrology and numerology. The videos are really stunning. The interesting articles are updated on a regular basis. You get fresh stuff on daily basis. Installation of the app didn’t take much time. It asks your basic details. Based on your zodiac and birth number, you keep getting interesting information.

To solve your life obstacles and problems there is an innovative approach adopted in iZofy. The astrology and numerology app is, in fact, a collaboration of problem solvers of repute and solution seekers i.e. the app users. To find a solution to your problem you need to explain it well and submit it. The problem is seen by all relevant astrologers and numerologists. They will submit their quotes for the solution. You have a choice to select the best solution provider. Logically, you will find it quite practical and transparent. The mechanism designed is simple yet powerful.

iZofy gives you daily tips based on your zodiac and birth number. You can check the astrology and numerology app on the basis of both verticals. I check it on the basis of the zodiac and then on the basis of numerology. Then I get a clear picture on the basis of both. You will also find free calculators related to astrology and numerology. Overall, it is an innovative, practical and scientifically designed app that you must try. Since I installed this app, I use it daily on my android phone on a regular basis. 

Terror Data Debate About Government Requests for Data – Bill Gates

Terror Data Debate should start as per Bill Gates

The recent tussle between Apple and the FBI calls for a terror data debate – Bill Gates

There has to be set norms for terror data requests by the government, says Bill Gates

Photo credit: cliff1066™ via Visual hunt / CC BY

Norms need to be set for all telecom and other companies for providing terror data when requested by the government. A recent tussle between Apple and the FBI calls for a terror data debate says, Bill Gates. The FBI wanted access to the complete history data of a dead murderer’s phone from Apple. Apple refused to oblige the FBI. This should immediately be taken into account. A debate must start about any kind of government requests for such kind of data as opined by Bill Gates. The fight between the FBI and Apple is lingering on for last few days and has reached to an extent of knocking the doors of the court. FBI wanted Apple to unlock the iPhone owned by Syed Rizwan Farook. Farook killed more than a dozen of innocent people in December last year. Is Apple worried in losing business if they oblige the FBI with this terror data?

Photo via Visualhunt.com

On one hand the FBI is seeking data related to Farook for investigation purposes. On the other hand, Apple has plainly refused to provide so saying the FBI order is risky and exceptional. Bill Gates in a discussion with the Financial Times stated that this is a particular case where the FBI is seeking data access. If they had asked for complete data of all customers, it could raise an objection. But for a specific case with a valid reason, Apple should not get into such kind of resisting mode. He further opined that the case is not different from government agencies seeking data from telecom and banking sector. In another interview held with BBC, Bill Gates said the issue has reached to an extent where a debate has become a necessity. The controversial point raised by Bill Gates is that on one hand government assures to protect citizens and on the other hand, in such critical conditions, the government wants this data to be exposed. He emphasized that the question is about the availability of such data to the government. Should agencies like the FBI stay blind or they should have all the rights to access data.

Photo credit: DonkeyHotey via Visual Hunt / CC BY

The US Department of Justice is also seeking relevant date from Apple in the context of around 15 different cases where investigations are stuck due to lack of data. It is important to settle this issue once for all. The terror data debate must take place as early as possible as demanded by Bill Gates.

NFC Technology – Near Field Communication – My Pilot Project In Cairo

NFC Technology means Near Field Communication technology

NFC Technology or near field communication technology works on RFID technology

NFC Technology or near field communication technology works well in close proximities

NFC technology of near field technology is an RFID-based technology. It works well in close proximities exceeding not more than 4-5 centimetres. The closer is the proximity the better will be the results. Worldwide a lot of initiatives are being taken to boost NFC technology but as such no considerable and sustainable real-life mass project has been launched. Though there have been many pilots completed successfully but it still at a mass scale it has to see the day of light. When we talk of a near field communication enabled phone, Nokia 6210C was among the earliest. It was launched in 2007. I did a pilot based on NFC technology in the largest mall named City Stars in Cairo, Egypt. It was a true challenging venture as I had to manage the deployment single handed.

How it got initiated? Our India based IT Company was handling all the group companies spread across the globe. I am talking about the largest security company in the world. We were headquartered in the UK. Our group company operations faced a tough challenge and we were approached by our headquarter team to find out a solution. The company based in Cairo had deployed over 800 security guards and supervisors in City Stars. City Stars is situated in the hub of the city and is a most happening place in Cairo, Egypt. I was assigned the task to design, develop and deploy the solution for this challenge. The challenge arose when one of the guards deployed at 6^th Floor of the mall absconded. He was assigned a duty near the 6th-floor emergency exit. There are two buildings – old and new, each having 8 floors. We know that emergency exits are rarely used, only in crisis. And when the crisis itself happens too rarely, it remains barren.

Three days later his dead body was found in the emergency exit area. That created an emergency for the mall administration to deploy a real-time alert mechanism. We exported 12 nos. of Nokia 6210 Classic from Scotland. Around 2000 nos. of various sized RFID tags and cards were procured from a local but reliable vendor. A web based solution was designed and a front end mobile based micro app was developed. The mobile applet would reside on the phone and will sync in an almost real-time environment with the server. There were multiple modules designed. One was to read every guard and supervisor for attendance at the time of his entry and exit. The supervisor on round used to read tags mounted on walls of the mall to ensure his actual tour is in place as per plan. If there is an incidence, the supervisor will capture snaps that will be transferred to the server in real time. There were many more issues that we were able to address. You can read the project details on my tech blog. The links to three posts are – post 1, post 2, and post 3.

Overall, the NFC technology or near field technology based solution was very successful. Soon it was deployed in many more countries for various solutions like the largest university in Saudi, some businesses in Kuwait and Turkey. That was a fantastico project driven by me. 

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

ReFlex Bendyphone is First Fully Functional Flexible Smartphone

ReFlex is World’s first bendyphone that is fully operational

ReFlex Bendy Smartphone is world’s first flexible smartphone

ReFlex Bendyphone is developed by researchers at Queen’s University, Human Media Lab, Canada

The ReFlex bendyphone is going to change your smartphone experience drastically. It is a reality now. The full functional flexible smartphone is a complete paradigm shift in the world of smartphone user experience. It has been developed by researchers at Human Media Lab, Queen’s University, Canada. It has already created a global stir. There will be a greater perceptible experience in e-reading and gaming on these smartphones. All this is based on the technology based on which it has been designed.

www.mirror.co.uk

When you bend down ReFlex flexible smartphone on your right while reading an e-book on it, pages will start flipping through the fingers from right to left. It will be an experience just like it happens in the physical word when you do the same with a print version of a book. The extent of the bend will decide the flipping speed of pages. This will get users a wonderful experience to feel the sensation of the page as if moving through their fingertips. This happens through creating vibrations in the phone that brings this kind of feeling. The higher bending will increase the frequency of these vibrations. Lowering the bending will decrease the frequency of vibrations. Roel Vertegaal, Director, Human Media Lab, Queen’s University is spearheading this project. A recent formal announcement made by Roel in this regard confirmed the successful story of ReFlex bendyphones. This will entirely be a different experience of reading e-books on these devices. There will be eyes-free navigation that will make it easy for users to bookmark a page in the middle of their reading. The user will find it more comfortable to keep track of where they were in the e-book.

www.ooyuz.com

This success story about ReFlex bendphone will certainly open new avenues of research in technology and mobility. The practical acceptability and usability are yet to be established. The development and design are done. Now it is the time to launch the device. Higher acceptability will depend on the enhanced user experience what is being claimed by the Human Media Lab, Queen’s University. There would be a high disruption in further developments in mobile device technology. It will also introduce a high interactive e-reading experience.

billsinsider.com

This will bring a sea-change in the reading preferences of book lovers worldwide. When you start getting a far more book-like experience with your e-reading gadget, it will shrink the gap between e-book reading and physical book reading. It will enhance the current screen technology experience to a real-life experience.

www.telegraph.co.uk

Queen’s University released the ReFlex prototype during the tenth anniversary conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI) conference that held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands on February 17. Once a fully functioning prototype is released, the mass production is not too far. Probably we would be buying ReFlex Bendyphone, a fully flexible smartphone in next couple of years.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.