iSocialNow bags BOSE Digital Marketing Account

Mumbai 19th Oct 2015: iSocialNow a leading digital marketing agency located in New Delhi has made a leap into the fast phased audio solutions for home, business or automobile by signing on BOSE. iSocialNow zest for digital has yielded great results for their clients.

iSocialNow is responsible for developing digital roadmap, content creation and maintenance on social media platform, recommending creative strategy and engagement concept besides community management and Online Reputation Management for Bose Corporation India Private Limited.

Aanchal Sharma Co-Founder,iSocialNow strongly believes that this association will usher in a new era for both companies:"Smart electronics is what defined the 21st Century and Bose as a brand has established itself in this business.

Our expertise lies in identifying and shaping the digital DNA of the brand with a distinguishing approach and deliver solutions that enhance the brand’s presence. Factoring in all the relevant parameters and social analytics is essential to a campaign’s success.

As the voice of the brand on the digital front, iSocialNow will be responsible for curating exciting camapigns/ signature properties and ensuring timely communication that will not only increase engagement and traction, but also create a human connect with the brand. It is exciting to work on a business which has one of the best product line across the globe!"

iSocialNow focuses on value addition for clients and formulate tailor made strategies and communication to suit their business, it makes them one of the most firmly rooted and well established agency.

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Bharti Airtel to offer iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus

New Delhi, October 13, 2015: Bharti Airtel today announced it will offer iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, the most advanced iPhones ever, beginning Friday, October 16 through 235 of its retail stores across the country. To celebrate the launch of the new iPhones, 57 of Bharti Airtel’s retail stores will stay open all night so customers can be among the first in India to get their hands on the all-new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Bharti Airtel is pleased to offer the only 4G network in India, and its customers can take advantage of its incredible network with the new ‘iPhone Infinity’” plans, which include 60GB of free 4G data over twelve months, saving customers Rs.15,000 on their monthly bill.

Customers need to visit offers.airtel.in from their new iPhone 6s / iPhone 6s Plus to activate the offer. To know more about Airtel’s “iPhone Infinity” plans, visit www.airtel.in/4g.

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus bring a powerful new dimension to iPhone’s revolutionary Multi-Touch interface with 3D Touch, which senses how deeply you press the display, letting you do all kinds of essential things more quickly and simply. The new iPhones introduce Live Photos, which bring still images to life, transforming instants frozen in time into unforgettable living memories.

Live Photos, 3D Touch, 12-megapixel iSight camera, 5-megapixel FaceTime HD camera with Retina Flash and more are powered by the Apple-designed A9 chip, the most advanced chip ever in a smartphone, delivering faster performance and great battery life. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are designed from the strongest glass on any smartphone and 7000 series aluminum the same alloy used in the aerospace industry, in gorgeous metallic finishes that now include rose gold.

“We are beyond thrilled to offer iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, two of the most iconic developments in technology this year, at Bharti Airtel’s 235 retail stores across India. With the rise of 4G services, we expect new iPhone customers to enjoy a world-class experience on Bharti Airtel”, said Srini Gopalan, Director - Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel.

Customers can purchase iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus at Bharti Airtel retail shops. A complete list of Airtel stores offering iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is available at www.airtel.in/apple.    
For more information on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone.

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Panasonic introduces 10 New Smartphones for Festive Season

New Delhi, 13th October, 2015: Panasonic India today announced the release of two new affordable smartphones, the P50 Idol and P65 Flash, ahead of the festive season. Priced at Rs. 6,790 and Rs. 8,290 respectively, the phablets make for the ideal gifting purchase, with Panasonic now offering a diversified range of smartphone models for every buyer. 

Panasonic’s focus on research and development in industrial design and user interface places its smartphone products at a level above the rest in terms of form factor and user-friendliness. In-depth research of the Indian consumer has identified three key criteria that are assessed in a smartphone: impressive screen displays, quality cameras and powerful battery back ups. The new P50 and P65 models tick all the right boxes, with sharper IPS HD displays, dual cameras, and mega battery capacities. 

Both devices are supported by the latest Android 5.1 (Lollipop) OS and powered by 1.3GHz Quad Core processors, 1GB RAM, and 8GB internal memory support expandable to 32GB with a micro SD. They support dual cameras with an 8 MP main camera enabled with LED flash and 720p HD recording as well as 2 MP front facing lens. Equipped with full connectivity packages including advanced A-GPS technology, both dual SIM models offer 3G support. The P65 Flash flaunts a 5.5-inch screen, complemented by a metallic gold or silver finish, with a mega 2910mAh capacity battery for longer operations. With a similarly large 2150mAh battery, the 5-inch P50 Idol comes with stylish contour edges for a sleek profile. The innovative metallic brush-effect on the back panel gives the device a Japanese premium brand look. 

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Pankaj Rana, Business Head – Mobility Division, Panasonic India, said, “Indian consumers are well aware and perceptive buyers, well informed about technology trends and available offerings in the market. We always keep the consumer behaviour in mind at every step of our smartphone design and manufacturing strategy. With the release of the P50 Idol and P65 Flash, Panasonic now offers nearly 30 smartphones at affordable price points for every buyer to indulge themselves or their loved ones this festive season.”

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Accenture expands Innovation Center for IBM Technologies in Bangalore

BANGALORE, INDIA; Oct. 13, 2015 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) is helping global clients take advantage of new liquid, intelligent and connected application strategies to shape their futures by expanding the Accenture Innovation Center for IBM Technologies in Bangalore. Building on a global business alliance relationship spanning two decades, the Innovation Center now offers global clients access to new services and solutions using the latest IBM cloud technologies including Bluemix and interaction with an onsite lab designed to help inspire innovative, scalable open source solutions leveraging faster application development methodologies.

"We have created a unique environment in Bangalore where clients are immersed in the very latest Accenture innovations made possible through the use of IBM cloud technologies," said Adam Burden, group technology officer, Accenture Technology Delivery. "We offer clients the opportunity to help accelerate their webscale systems development and assemble industry-specific and personalized applications quicker through next-generation software engineering techniques enabled by Bluemix."

The Accenture Innovation Center for IBM Technologies in Bangalore is part of a global team of dedicated Accenture practitioners with broad knowledge in IBM software and hardware, supporting over 1,200 Accenture client teams and training over 15,000 Accenture practitioners annually. This helps enable Accenture to deliver a broad range of services based on IBM technologies in the areas of service-oriented architecture for application and middleware integration, business process management, analytics and big data, commerce, smarter infrastructure and Infrastructure-as-a-Service, mobility and security.

"We are delighted with the expansion of the Accenture Innovation Center for IBM Technologies in Bangalore," said Dr. Daniel Sabbah, chief technology officer and general manager, IBM Next Generation Platforms. "This is a testament to the mutual commitment and collaboration of Accenture and IBM to help drive the digital transformation of our mutual customers' businesses and industries. By leveraging the latest cloud technologies and development strategies we are better positioned to support the innovation of a wide array of companies – from the largest enterprise to the smallest start-up – at the speed of cloud."

IBM launched Bluemix with a $1 billion investment in 2014, maturing to become one of the largest Cloud Foundry deployments in the world and providing a developer-friendly catalog of over 120 tools and software-services combining a variety of open source, IBM and third-party technologies. This helps Accenture develop enterprise-class cloud applications at scale faster and increase the speed of the deployment of mobile, analytics and machine-learning (Watson) solutions for clients across all industries.

Accenture is one of the world’s largest technology services providers for IBM software and hardware, with more than 40,000 practitioners worldwide skilled in IBM technologies. Accenture’s leading status as an IBM Technology Premier Business Partner means the company is granted insight into IBM product engineering, research and development, and product roadmaps which help clients make informed choices.

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Lifestyle Chat-app 'n-gage' launched in India

Hyderabad, Oct 12: India: n-gage, world’s first 360 degree lifestyle chat-app was launched today in India. This is the most advanced and latest messaging app which comes with innovative features allowing its users to enjoy rich messaging across any other messenger apps. n-gage aims to bridge the gap and connect people, make new friends and learn new things by making it available to all, regardless of whether users have a smartphone or not, and without compromising on features.

 “We are delighted to announce the launch of n-gage in India.  With our efforts to enrich everyday communication, we decided to develop a360 degree lifestyle chat application. This app will enable Indians to experience rich personalised messaging, file sharing and have video calls in a way never seen before. Through this app, we envisage to change the way people communicate.”says Mr. Ajit Patel, CEO & Founder of n-gage.

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Hike revolutionizes Instant Messaging Space

New Delhi, Oct 9: hike messenger, one of India's fastest growing internet companies today announced the introduction of hike direct, a game-changing proposition that will revolutionize the way people communicate. A first in the world and first in the category feature—hike direct, allows users to chat, exchange stickers, transfer photos and heavy files of any type, things that users would regularly do on hike without the Internet & without incurring data charges.

Hike Direct allows mobile phones to connect with one another directly within a 100 meter radius completely by passing the telecom networks. Users can then chat and share files directly up to a speed of 40Mbps with very low latency, which is comparable if not better than 4G speeds promised by telecom companies today. For example, exchanging 100MB of data would take less than 10 seconds on hike direct, more importantly without incurring any data charges.

Speaking on the launch, Kavin Mittal, Founder & CEO hike messenger added “Today is the day we completely redefine messaging. Hike Direct has been built on breakthrough technology that adds a whole new dimension to messaging enabling hikers to chat and share files with their friends without the internet and without incurring any data charges. One can get speeds up to 40 Mbit/sec when chatting and sharing files through hike direct. Data or no data, hike will always work. It’s incredibly powerful.”

The all – new hike direct is built from the ground up with a new generation of network solutions and uses Wifi Direct technology systems that help establish peer to peer network connection between two phones. To use hike direct, users simply need to open a chat with a friend and choose Hike Direct from the 3 dot menu on top right of the screen and hike does the rest. Hike automatically pairs up with the other phone and lets you chat and share files with your friends without the internet.

Users can get this feature by upgrading to the latest version of hike, version 4.0.6 and above, which is available free on the Google Play Store starting today. Hike Direct on iOS, Windows to follow next year.

The company also announced that it crossed 70 million users last month with 20 billion messages being exchanged per month making it by far the 2nd largest messaging app in the country. An average user on hike spends over 140 minutes per week on the application.

The all new hike has recently been upgraded to 4.0 version with best in class features developed to deliver greater value to users such as news, hindi news bytes, localized stickers in 30 languages, automatic sticker suggestions, Group calling, Group chat upto 500 members, 100 MB file sharing and many more.

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Google launches Delhi Public Transport Offline App

Recognizing the importance of public transport as an important means of travel in Delhi, Google India today announced the launch of the Delhi Public Transport App, a unique app which makes it easier for Delhi residents to get around on public transport. The new experimental app will help users get transit directions easily even when the connection is slow and data is difficult to access.

Delhi Public Transport app makes the direction and time table information for Delhi Metro and buses available offline, to help users get information about directions between bus stops and metro routes even when they don’t have any net connection. Once the app is downloaded, it uses no data for directions’ queries or timetables, even if the phone is online. A small amount of data is used for news alerts (if online, roughly 1 KB each, about once a day) and user-optional feedback (up to 100 KB per feedback report).

India is one of the biggest growth countries in terms of Google Maps usage and with this app, Google aims to better serve the needs of public transport riders in the New Delhi area and make it an everyday choice for the public transport riders in Delhi.

The Delhi Transport app of 1MB size will help the users with information on public transport and is available for Android users from the Google Play store. The app will use the same Transit  data  for DMRC metro, DTC buses, DIMTS (Orange) buses, and Gurgaon Rapid Metro as that found on Google maps and  available offline for the users.

Around 2.60 million people travel by Delhi metro these days according to the latest ridership data. This app will help Delhi citizens plan their travel better and save time to reach their destination.

Moreover, the app users can also give feedback to the Google maps team by going on the button at the top of the app and the feedback will be incorporated into the future versions of this app and for Google Maps itself. The app also includes a “share” button, which will generate a link that can be sent to friends via e.g. WhatsApp – through which the app can be downloaded directly even without a Google Play Store account.

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WHDMS.com offers Free Web Hosting with cPanel 1GB/Year

Bangalore: Web Hosting & Domain Managed Services (www.whdms.com), trusted by thousands of webmasters, businesses and individuals on the perfect management solution for hosting requirements, announced  this week that it has launched a ‘new web hosting plan’ that offers 1 GB of web space worth 3,800 INR absolutely FREE.

The company has firmly established itself as one of the largest and fast growing hosting service with its fast, reliable and affordable hosting backed by dedicated people and cutting edge technology.
“We are very excited about this new launch as it would cater all those who cannot afford the web hosting prices, from everyday people to upcoming bloggers, creative professionals to small businesses. We are looking forward to provide our level of service and quality absolutely free” says Marketing Director of WHDMS.com.

Features of Free Web Hosting by WHDMS.com: 
• 1GB Free Space
• 100GB Data transfer and Bandwidth
• 5 E-mail contacts and FTP accounts
• 5 MYSQL accounts can be created
• Daily auto backups
• 50 Installation Apps
• Free web hosting accounts within 60 seconds
• 24X7 Customer support
• Notifications and alerts for website monitoring
• 2-step authentication for future security
• Absolutely AD free
• Credit card not required
• No Hidden Costs

How to Avail 1 GB Free Hosting? 
• Go to this page [link]
• Then click on ‘create a new account’.
• That’s all you will have your account setup ready within few minutes once you are done with the signup process via email & mobile verification.
• You will have your account setup done within the first 60 seconds and start enjoying free hosting of your website or blog on WHDMS for a year.

If in case you have finished your 1 GB hosting or you need more features then you can easily upgrade to their premium hosting and take advantage of the full features. Visit WHDMS.com.
The company had limited the offer for a period of 1 month and asserted that the best time to grab the offer is now. Also company states that it is a good opportunity to explore the cPanel and get acquainted with it as using cPanel significantly helps in making the setup process easy as well as manages the database and the files of the website in a more convenient manner. Also, in the announcement, the company says it will "continue 150 percent commitment of the electricity it uses with renewable energy, in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)."

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Indifi Technologies launches SMB Financing Platform

New Delhi, Sep 30: Indifi Technologies Pvt, Ltd., an enabler for SME funding in India was launched today.The company streamlines credit assessment processes through automated data collection, processing and analysis. It aims to solve credit access issues for small business while providing a zero operating cost model for lenders.

The unique concept of Indifi has been initiated and implemented by three co-founders: Mr. Alok Mittal, Mr. Siddharth Mahanot and Mr. Sundeep Sahi, who come from diverse fields of finance, business and technology.

Commenting on the launch, Alok Mittal, Co-founder and CEO, Indifi Technologies said – “MSMEs contribute to nearly 38% of the country’s GDP, but at the same time, suffer from $380B formal debt financing gap.Proliferation of data in this space has created a unique opportunity to address this gap.

At Indifi, we collect demographic, business and financial data, and analyze it to assist these businesses in securing credit from banks and NBFCs. Backed by innovation and technology, we seek to improve access, reduce the overall credit operations cost by 50-60%, and enable disbursements within a mere 4 days from application.”

Indifi takes a segment specific approach, where in the product design and data models are designed with deep understanding of needs a segment. Lending products in any given segment are tightly integrated with the business cash flows and transnational linkages in that segment. Currently, Indifi is live in three business segments across travel, transportation and retail sectors.

The company’s business model revolves around a fee for services provided to lenders – from marketing, to data collection and analysis, and on-ground documentation and verification. Indifi also assists institutions in monitoring the possible risk of default on an ongoing basis by analyzing transactions undertaken by such borrowers over the life of the loan. In a short period since its inception, Indifi now already works with two financial institutions who lend through the Indifi platform. 

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Develop Technology in Strategic Sector: Dr Harsha Vardhan

Union Minister of Science & Technology & Earth Sciences Dr Harsha vardhan asks scientists to develop at least one technology in strategic sector in each laboratory in India. Speaking to media at Raman Research Institute in Bangalore yesterday, the minister said that results of the scientific research should reach to the people and the Union government is striving to bridge the gap between scientists and the common people.

 Scientists in India cannot stand alone with their research papers but help the people Dr. Harsh Vardhan said. He said there should be a method for scientists to work set timeframes to achieve targets. The Minister said that declarations have been adopted in Dehradun and Hyderabad meetings, involving various scientists, to develop the technologies for National missions like Swatch Bharat, skill India, smart cities, digital India, Namami Ganga projects.

Indian laboratories are now expected to devise ways to develop industry driven technologies, including game changing technologies. He asked the scientists’ community to be a catalytic agent in evolving India into ‘Samarth Bharat-Sashakt Bharat’. Scientists should focus on developing technologies for improving quality of life of the common man and coming months would see each of the laboratories focusing its resources on developing specific lines of inventions which would contribute to the social and economic objectives of the Narendra Modi government for the poor and common man the minister said.

Dr. Harsha Vardhan said further studies and experiments in the field of earth sciences are underway for a better prediction of climate conditions. He added that the government is ready to pump in more funds into scientific researches.

 Due to the initiatives of the government, Indian born scientists are returning to their homeland. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji himself is focusing in this regard, the minister added. It may be noted here that the Prime Minister met 30 eminent scientists from various top institutions across the country three days back to discuss related issues.

Dr Harsha Vardhan visited the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore yesterday and had a first-hand exposure to the cutting edge experimental research at the institute. He has be visiting all the top research laboratories across the country to monitor and guide the scientific activities being undertaken there.

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ConveGenius launches Battle of Minds

ConveGenius, an edutainment start-up, focused on digitizing education and making it fun and affordable, today announced the launch of its gaming network mobile application - Battle of Minds for the Android users. Battle of Minds is a real-time multi-player contest platform where users can engage, interact, play and learn by competing against each other. It is a mixture of trivia, educational content, news, and skill based games.

The users derive twin benefits - learning via playing and the tokens they earn as they win which can then be redeemed for cash vouchers and goodies from leading brands like Flipkart, Freecharge, Jabong, Bookmyshow, Dominos, Zo Rooms, Vista Print etc. The platform is based on the concept of - ‘the more you learn, the more you redeem!’ and the essence of Battle of Minds reflects the brand philosophy- Edutainment.

The platform is being created in such a manner that it will be agnostic to third party games, new topics on the go, live and trending news, and participatory content contribution. It also acts as a social discovery platform for the users, by connecting them with like-minded people on the platform, based on the topic of their interest.
In one month from launch, the Battle of Minds beta app without any paid marketing has crossed 700,000+ screen views, 7000+ sign-ups, 800 daily active users, 100,000+ challenges played and more than 30,000 sessions averaging 21 minutes.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Jairaj Bhattacharya, Co-founder of ConveGenius said, “Battle of Minds is a step towards creating disruption in the knowledge and digital media segment. We have observed a definite stickiness on our platform and our early adopters just cannot stop using it. Our vision is to scale this platform globally into the largest edutainment gaming network. Our platform for the first time will be able to create an ecosystem where brands can organize real time contests on mobile, educational institutes can choose students by conducting competitive exams, reaching out to 600x users for their campaigns.“

“It comes with a technology to detect web robots in a hack-free environment so that all contests can be completely free of cheats via code and deep learning methods. Shortly, we also plans to introduce game categories on topics of competitive exams like GRE/GMAT/IIT JEE/BANK-PO/Civil Services etc. thereby creating longer life-time value for users. We aim to reach the milestone of 1 million downloads, 100,000 daily active users by the end of 2015.” adds Shashank Pandey, Co-founder, ConveGenius.

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6fusion International Partners with India Compute Interchange

New Delhi, India, Aug 20: 6fusion International today announced the formation of 6fusion Online India Pvt Ltd in conjunction with India Compute Interchange (ICIx), the financial marketplace for India to trade compute resources.

6fusion standardized the economic measurement of IT infrastructure and cloud services, which provides IT economic transparency to the global market. 6fusion’s technology, the Workload Allocation Cube (WAC) is the industry’s standard for IT economic measurement, allowing an “apples to apples” comparison regardless of technology, vendor, or platform.

With 6fusion’s UC6 Platform, organizations can view and manage the Total Cost of Consumption (TCC) of their business services in real time and achieve a higher level of cost optimization, forecasting accuracy and business agility.

The new company, 6fusion Online India Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Vadodara, Gujarat, will be focused on servicing the needs of the growing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market in India and will enable Enterprise Organizations, Government Agencies, and Cloud Service Providers to take advantage of the Workload Allocation Cube (WAC), to benchmark, measure and efficiently transact compute resource power in the Indian marketplace.

“We have only started to scratch the surface of the ‘Cloud’ in India” said ICIx Director, Hemal Mewada. “Benchmarking, measuring and eventually being able to transact IT Infrastructure in a transparent, open market is a reality and 6fusion Online India is the last piece of the puzzle needed to make India the envy of the digital world.”

“From an operations standpoint, with 6fusion Online India, ICIx has everything to help fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’ and, by assuring green power transactions, ‘Green India’," he added.

Sahil Shah, 6fusion India Chief Operating Officer says, “6fusion Online India’s tools and technology, coupled with the capital efficiencies provided by ICIx, will help prepare the digital foundation for the future of India by providing an efficient marketplace for the cloud and its users.”

“We believe 6fusion Online India Pvt Ltd and ICIx in partnership will be instrumental in assisting Prime Minister Modi's vision of being able to provide Compute Resources to every person in India as a utility," he added.

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Google Open Doors to the 'Google House'

Mumbai, India, Aug 20: Today Google flung open the doors to the “Google House” — a showcase of the latest product innovations for India’s ‘mobile first’ world. The event featured demonstrations of Google’s Search, Maps, Photos, Translate and YouTube apps, as well as appearances from celebrity chef Kunal Kapur, fashion photographer Dabboo Ratnani and Anushka Menon and YouTube comedic sensation Karan Talwar. The celebrities discussed how Google’s mobile products make their lives a little easier.

As Sandeep Menon, Google Country Marketing Director explains “Indians are coming online from mobile devices at an incredibly rapid rate — six to seven million new mobile internet users every month. Today’s event is about showcasing how we’re working to make our products relevant and useful for India, and how smartphones have evolved to become the best personal assistant you’ve never had. Whether you need to get directions 10 minutes before your next meeting, a step by step recipe to make an impression, or a way to never be late to the airport again, Google can help keep you connected to the people and information that you care about.”

Additionally in Google’s quest to foster the next generation of talent in the Indian YouTube creator community, YouTube has partnered with one of Asia’s largest and most renowned film schools, Whistling Woods International, to set up a new YouTube Space in Mumbai. A collaboration and production facility for YouTube video creators. Through this collaboration, India's popular up-and-coming YouTube creators, as well as their students, will have free access to Whistling Woods’ studios, high-end audio, visual and editing equipment, over and above their training programs, workshops and community events.

Keeping true to its commitment, Google has also been working on seamless Voice Search experience that lets you search by speaking your query into your phone, instead of typing it. Google voice search has been optimized for English in the Indian accent, as well as in Hindi. To access Voice Search, just tap the microphone icon on the Google search bar, and speak your query, and voila—see your spoken words get transcribed automatically, and searched for in Google

Key Highlights from the mobile-focused demonstrations at the Google House included:
● A hands-on showcase of the new instant translation feature in Google Translate. Recently launched in Hindi, instant translate helps you break through language barriers by instantly translating printed text, like street signs or ingredient lists by opening the app on your phone and pointing your camera at the text.
●A look at the new Google Photos app which automatically backs up photos and videos across all your devices. With people around the world uploading 1.8 billion photos every day, taking 93 million selfies and more photos being taken every two minutesthan the whole of humanity took in the 1800s, it’s just as well that Google Photo offers unlimited, free storage.
●An overview of recent Search innovations like faster and lighter search results for people accessing the web from a mobile device with a slow connection like 2G. Voice Search updates to the Google app which has been optimised for English in the Indian accent and in Hindi to make finding answers to your questions faster, easier and more local. As well as some of the latest Google Now updates, which bring you information when and where you want it, before you even have to ask — like a personal assistant.
● As well as an overview of recent offline features, like the ability to save Maps for times when you might not have a connection. OrYouTube Offline, which gives you a way to watch videos without chewing through all your data — even when you don’t have a connection.

What the celebrities at the Google House are saying….

Photography stars Dabboo Ratnani & Anushka Menon
For celebrity photographer Dabboo Ratnani, Bollywood is where home is and photography a way of life. "While photography is a way of life for me, what’s also important is making sure my clientele has easy and early access to the photos I take of them. I’m always on the move so it is important for me to have access to a good photo editor and for me to be able to search through and find a particular photo shoot quickly enough. Google Photos has both of these features easily available to access in terms of a great editor and the cool new Assistant feature. These have become my favourites today!”

While, Anushka Menon, one of India’s most iconic fashion and beauty photographers, said "Photography is adding a humanistic, versatile & colourful touch to make my work both modern and fresh. I always try to combine aesthetics that combine Indian culture and western fashion codes. My favourite feature is being able to store multiple pictures and not worry about running out of space. I also love that they are chronologically arranged and each of my photo shoot appears as a beautiful Story that I can go back and share with my friends and family.”

Celebrity chef Kunal Kapur
Commenting on his use of Google Search, celebrated chef Kunal Kapur says, “I travel the world meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and of course, searching for new ingredients and culinary experiences. Sometimes when I travel I don’t even know the name of the ingredients I see in the local markets and Google Image search helps me find out what it is exactly. Another great feature is the abundance of recipes online. I still remember days when I looked through my grandma’s book of recipes. Today, all I do is search online and find a treasure trove of so many recipes sent in by users from their families. And I use Google Now to keep everything organized. It has become my constant companion and has made managing a multi time-zone life much easier while Google Photos helps me archive and share my experiences instantly.”

YouTube comedian Karan Talwar
As YouTube funny man Karan Talwar explains “One of the best things that Google has done for its consumers is providing them the ‘YouTube Offline’ option. This helps my viewers access my videos easily and also helps everyone view their favourite videos anytime, anywhere without a data connection. I myself save a lot of videos offline for viewing to avoid buffering and save time.”

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Syntel named in Gartner Hype Cycle for Application Services

Mumbai, August 20, 2015 – Syntel, Inc. (Nasdaq:SYNT), a global provider of digital transformation, information technology and knowledge process services to Global 2000 companies, today announced that it has been identified as a sample vendor in the Gartner "Hype Cycle for Application Services, 2015" report.

Syntel was named in the Application Modernization Services category, which Gartner defines as “activities offered by service providers preserve and extend the useful life of enterprise applications and to modify underlying infrastructure to achieve desired IT or business outcomes.”

Syntel’s suite of end-to-end application modernization solutions includes modernization consulting, re-architecture, application re-engineering, transcoding, replication, UI modernization and ecosystem migration services. Syntel’s approach to legacy migration focuses on enabling clients to embrace the digital paradigm by combining the power of existing legacy investments with the next generation of digital development capabilities.

Syntel’s modernization services are driven by the Exit Legacy portal, a cloud-based modernization platform that provides a complete suite of tools, accelerators and reporting capabilities to enable a fast, low-risk, automated transition from Legacy to modern technologies.

Developed by Syntel based on its experience with complex migration projects, Exit Legacy provides complete lifecycle support for analysis and migration projects and delivers migrations as much as 30% faster, and an estimated 35% cost reduction over traditional migration techniques.

Syntel was also named by Gartner in the Application Testing Services category, which, according to the report, “is a comprehensive term used to capture all types of validation and verification services for the purposes of application quality control and quality assurance.”

Syntel’s approach to application testing services is driven by SyntBotsTM, a next-generation automation platform. SyntBots can automate infrastructure, application and UI elements across a variety of platforms, including Mainframe, web, desktop, virtualized servers, network, storage, cloud and mobile.

One of the key features of the platform is SyntBots for DevOps, an end-to-end continuous delivery solution that manages application services from environment provisioning through application validation and deployment, enabling clients to adopt Agile testing techniques that are well suited to digital initiatives.

SyntBots for DevOps includes several innovative test automation features, including a test design accelerator, automated code reviews, a “Shift Left” framework for Quality Assurance, and a suite of accelerators for automated functional, regression and UAT testing. The result is a reduction in defects, higher code quality, reduced cost of ownership, and a significant improvement in “first time right.”

Syntel leverages the SyntBots automation platform to deliver “always on” service for change the business initiatives and run the business operations, enabling clients to execute transformation programs while reducing cost.

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SES and POST Telecom partner to Develop Smart Cloud-Based ICT Solutions

SES Techcom Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of leading satellite operator SES, and POST Telecom, a leading specialist in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions and a subsidiary of POST Luxembourg, today announced that they have entered a new partnership to develop and introduce smart cloud-based ICT solutions worldwide.

POST Telecom offers enterprises a range of converged solutions, including server virtualisation and online storage, while SES Techcom Services provides a variety of state-of-the-art engineering services, such as broadband connectivity, cloud-based solutions for e-platforms and satellite infrastructure and network operations. The partnership will leverage their core competencies and cutting-edge ICT infrastructures to develop a range of innovative services.

Managing Director of SES Techcom Services Gerhard Bethscheider said, “The partnership with POST Telecom is particularly exciting as it enables the two organisations to jointly develop and commercialise satellite- and cloud-based communication services. This will be especially important for serving customer requirements as the telecom industry develops in the future. We look forward to working closely together with our partner in realising the great potential this agreement represents.”

POST Telecom’s Managing Director, Jean-Marie Spaus, added, “We are pleased to have signed this Memorandum of Understanding with SES Techcom Services and are confident the partnership will be of great benefit to both companies.”

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Remote Control Functionality is the Top Driver of Smartphone Upgrades: Peel Global Survey

New Delhi, India-- A global survey by Peel, the California-based company funded by ecommerce giant Alibaba, shows that infrared-based universal remote control functionality has emerged on the top of the list for buyers looking to upgrade to a new smartphone. The online survey had participation from 2140 smartphone owners worldwide. At 58%, users rated remote control capabilities way ahead of mobile payment capabilities (19%), finger print sensors (13%) and heart rate monitors (10%) as the feature they would be “most likely to use”.

Smartphone users in India, which is among the fastest growing smartphone markets, expressed a keen interest in remote control features, with 84% of respondents saying they were an “important” factor in their decision to purchase a new smartphone, just behind China (89%) and South Korea (85%). In the U.S., 52% said it was an important factor in their next smartphone purchase.


“While they have emerged globally as a major new use case for smartphones, universal remote capabilities are even more desirable in countries such as India because of the wider range of devices they can control in the home such as air conditioners, ceiling fans and heaters,” said Peel co-founder and CEO Thiru Arunachalam.

When asked to choose just one new feature to be available on their smartphone, 41% of the respondents from India chose “controlling their TV, etc. with IR remote,” followed by mobile payment capabilities (29%), fingerprint sensors (24%) and heart rate monitors (7%).

Remote control capabilities were first introduced on Android smartphones over two years ago and seem to be growing popular among users very fast. Today, many of the latest Android smartphones come equipped with an IR port which enables users to dump their plastic remotes in favor of using their phone to control their TV, set-top box, DVD player and other home electronics. Smart remote apps also allow users to find content to watch more easily, set reminders and even program DVRs.

In contrast, European smartphone owners surveyed by Peel appeared less aware of or interested in smart remote options with mobile payments ranking ahead of remote control features, followed by fingerprint sensors and heart rate monitors as influencing purchase decisions.

Where on one hand, IR remote capabilities are available in the U.S. and other developed nations only on high-end phones such as the Galaxy S and Note series from Samsung or the HTC One M8 and M9, yet on the other, several manufacturers in China, including Xiaomi, ZTE and TCL, and in India (Celkon, Panasonic, Alcatel OneTouch, Xolo) have begun to offer Android phones with advanced IR capabilities for as little as Rs.3199, including the recently announced A35K Remote from Celkon. The Peel Smart Remote has become the most popular app globally taking advantage of IR capabilities, with more than 115 million registered users who have generated over 100 billion remote commands to date.

While Apple so far has chosen not to include an IR port on any of its competing phones or tablets, two in five iPhone users surveyed said they would be interested in the same remote capabilities enjoyed by Android users.

Peel makes it easy for Indian consumers to switch to a smartphone remote because it works with all popular brands of TVs and air conditioners sold in India, and 600 set-top boxes, including those from Airtel, Tata Sky, Dish TV, Hathway, DEN and Siti Cable. For Indian consumers, Peel features TV listings from WhatsOnIndia. India is one of the fastest growing markets for Peel with users doubling every six months.

The use of smartphones to control the home is expected to continue to increase in popularity as more consumers add Internet connected household devices such as thermostats, plugs and lighting. Many believe that remote control will emerge as one of the valuable use cases driving the adoption of smart watches as well.

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Infosys positions as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant

Infosys (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in consulting, technology, outsourcing and next-generation services, today announced that it has been positioned as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for SAP Implementation Services, Worldwide, 2015 by Susan Tan. This Magic Quadrant assessed 17 service providers.

The report states, “Leaders are performing well today, gaining traction and mind share in the market; they have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market. The players in this quadrant generally have a global client base, a track record of implementing complex SAP programs globally that support business transformation, and well-balanced business, process and industry consulting and implementation capabilities that are supported by rigorous tools and methodologies.”

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Use a layered approach to protect yourself from Cryptolocker

Cryptolocker and similar ransomware attacks are nothing new, and we’ve blogged about them before. As we said over a year ago, the attackers using these methods continue to adapt their technology and business model to circumvent law enforcement officials and user defenses.
Ransomware is a type of malware that hijacks data on the infected computer and demands a ransom from the user. Here’s a video demonstrating Cryptolocker in action:

https://youtu.be/k4QrK_IBRcI

So how did that PC get infected? Malware can be delivered by a number of methods:

• Phishing attacks are by far the most common means of infecting users. The email in question usually invites the victim to click on a malicious link or open an infected attachment. This method is effective in delivering malware to users who do not have the latest email protection or have not been educated on phishing attacks.
• Drive-by downloads can infect users who visit a compromised website. These websites can be compromised through malicious web code, an infected third-party piece of software, or website code that has been changed by the attackers. This risk can be mitigated with a web filter and up-to-date antivirus software. Other strategies include limiting user permissions and disabling Java in the browser.
• Computers that are already infected with malware can download and install new malware, including Cryptolocker.

Sometimes the infection is a result of a mix of the above methods, as explained in this post at Malwarebytes. A user attempts to install something, gets tricked into installing something else, and is infected by a drive-by download in the background. Whatever the details, the majority of malware is installed when users are tricked into clicking on something. That’s whyuser education is so important to the overall defense strategy.

Because Cryptolocker and its variants are constantly adapting to new defenses, it isn’t enough to identify the virus and protect yourself from that specific threat. The best approach is to secure the threat vectors, so that the entryways to the network are fully protected. For a better explanation of threats and threat vectors, take a look at this video. Ruoting Sun and Steve Pao explain:

https://youtu.be/tHHj1jJ8TvE

Ruoting Sun – Senior Product Marketing Manager
Steve Pao – GM Security

One break in an attack sequence can prevent the installation of Cry
ptolocker. Using a layered approach to security gives you the opportunity to break the sequence at several levels. Protect your users with email, web, network, and mobile security. In the event that you cannot stop an infection, a proper backup solution and disaster recovery strategy will ensure that compromised data can be restored.

We implement this layered approach with Barracuda Total Threat Protection. Here’s how that breaks down in terms of solutions and threat vectors:

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POPXO.com Hits 2.2 Million

Pune 19 June 2015: Just 1 year after launching, POPxo.com has become India’s fastest growing digital content platform for women. Reaching over 2.2 million readers in May, and over 7.3 million page views, POPxo has a finger on the pulse of the digital generation. 

The company continues to grow rapidly and innovate. The POPxo App is now available on iOS and Android. The recent launch of POPxo Hindi is an important milestone for the dynamic startup as it continues on its mission to become the digital best friend of every young woman in India.

POPxo, India's fastest-growing digital content platform for women, announces ​​the launch of the POPxo app. Available for free​ on the Apple App Store and on Google Play​, the POPxo app is targeted at the more than 2.2m women who read POPxo each month. 

The POPxo provides an exceptional reading experience, with large, beautiful images, simple and one-click social sharing to the social networks that matter - especially Facebook and WhatsApp. It is optimised to load stories quickly on both wifi and 3G and includes a host of features only available on the app, from allowing readers to save articles to (coming very soon!) exclusive discounts on products from POPxo’s favourite brands

Priyanka Gill, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, says, “There are millions of young women in India who wake up every morning and reach straight for their phones, not for a newspaper or a magazine. They want to read about the things they care and worry about: relationships and friendships, fashion trends, shopping steals, life hacks, beauty DIYs. We talk to #RealWomen through fun, practical and witty content in a tone that they can relate to. And we deliver it in an easy and accessible way, through POPxo.com obviously, but also on the networks our readers are obsessed with: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp. We have a highly engaged reader base and when we ask what they want next from POPxo, most of them have said an app - a place where they can get their daily fix of our unique content in the quickest, prettiest way possible”

POPxo’s audience is highly engaged - over 40% of readers return within a month. And it’s very focused - 91% of readers are women between the ages of 18-34. While 54% of readers are from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, there are also impressive audiences in cities such as Chandigarh, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Indore, Jaipur and Kochi.

Co-Founder and CEO, Namrata Bostrom adds, “Brands love how focused and loyal our audience is, particularly in their engagement with POPxo on social media. We take a data driven approach to everything we do, relentlessly optimizing our content and figuring out the best ways to get our stories to readers. Brands see the impact of the campaigns we run for them. The results are measurable, transparent and immediate. The app is the next step in the evolution of POPxo. In the last two months we’ve launched Hindi, videos and now the app … And there’s so much more to come!”

Raoul Bostrom, Head of Product and Partnerships, POPxo.com added “We’re looking to build an app that’s an enhanced version of the POPxo.com website that readers already love. You’ll see a lot of app-only features coming soon - from shopping collections with exclusive discounts to “Ask POPxo”, for readers to get the answers to their pressing questions”

The POPxo app was developed in conjunction with technology partners Vaibhav and Saurabh Wadhwa of Define Labs and designer Karuna Harishanker.

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Barracuda launches Software-as-a-Service

Barracuda is expanding on its existing flexible options for businesses to manage their data protection and disaster recovery needs. Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, Barracuda’s new SaaS backup option, provides customers with the ability to replicate data from supported cloud environments into Barracuda’s Cloud Storage. Barracuda Backup now provides customers with additional options for long-term data retention and physical-to-virtual portability.

“As IDC’s worldwide unit leader in Integrated Purpose Built Backup Appliances, extending the value we provide to our customers is always our top priority, which includes giving them flexible options for protecting their data and restoring services quickly in the event of a disaster,” said Rod Mathews, GM Storage, Barracuda. “As businesses continue to move their infrastructures to the cloud with the adoption of SaaS applications, providing the same level of protection for physical servers, virtual servers, and cloud services is crucial. The new options for Barracuda Backup, including Cloud-to-Cloud Backup for SaaS applications, will offer customers additional flexibility for data protection and disaster recovery.”

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Backup

Barracuda's new Cloud-to-Cloud Backup currently supports Microsoft Office 365 including Exchange Online and OneDrive for Business. IT administrators concerned about protecting Microsoft Office 365 environments will be able to replicate data over a secure connection to be stored in Barracuda Cloud Storage. Lost data can be more easily searched for and retrieved. Administrators can download or restore data directly back to Microsoft’s hosted applications from Barracuda Cloud Control - a centralized web-based administration console, accessible from anywhere. Benefits include:

· Protection against accidental or malicious data loss

· Customizable retention policies and granular selection

· Automated or manual backups

· Search, multi-selection restores, or downloads

· Barracuda Cloud Storage can be deployed in geographically distributed, enterprise-grade data centers

· Data encrypted with HTTPS/SSL in transit and AES 265-bit encryption at rest

Flexible Options for Long-Term Data Retention

For businesses looking to meet extended retention requirements, Barracuda Backup customers can leverage Offsite Vaulting to store historical revisions in Barracuda’s Cloud Storage or an offsite Barracuda Backup appliance. Barracuda Backup is extending its functionality to include export options for historical revisions to external media such as disk or tape. Benefits include:

· Export individual files, folders, or databases – both scheduled or on-demand – to disk, tape drives, autoloaders, and robotic libraries

· Automatic scheduling and media rotation, data encryption and compression, and alerting of backup completion or errors

Physical-to-Virtual Portability

Barracuda Backup’s innovative LiveBoot feature provides a rapid recovery option for virtual environments during disasters and will now add physical-to-virtual (P2V) portability. For physical servers that are not yet end of life, IT admins will be able to restore these systems into a virtual server hosted in VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. Benefits include:

· Simplified migration from legacy physical servers into virtual environments

· Reduced time-to-recovery in the event of a disaster by enabling recovery of physical servers to a virtual infrastructure

“Barracuda Backup has always provided us with the flexibility to back up our data in a way that makes the most sense for our business,” said Craig Sauvigne, System Administrator, Winthrop University. “It’s easy to buy and set up, is highly scalable and keeps improving with each update – Barracuda Backup is a great long-term solution for backup and recovery.”

Barracuda Backup is part of the company’s Data Protection Plus strategic initiative, aimed at helping customers access, retain and share critical data from anywhere and any device. For more information about Data Protection Plus, please visit:http://cuda.co/dppreview.

Pricing and Availability

Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup for Microsoft Office 365 is expected to be available in the next 60 days. It will be included for the first year at no additional charge for new and existing customers with subscriptions to Barracuda Backup Unlimited Cloud Storage. It will also be available as a standalone service. For more information on the pricing and availability of Barracuda Cloud-to-Cloud Backup, please visit http://cuda.co/direct2cloud.

The latest version of Barracuda Backup is expected to be available in the next 60 days. It will be included at no additional charge to existing customers on current appliance platforms with an active Energize Updates subscription. The Barracuda Backup list price starts at $999 USD for the all-in-one appliance, with a list price of $199 USD for the annual Energize Updates subscription. An optional Instant Replacement service featuring priority replacement of failed hardware and a complimentary hardware refresh every four years is available starting at a list price of $219 USD per year. A one-year subscription to Unlimited Cloud Storage starts at $499 USD.

Barracuda Backup is also available as a comprehensive annual subscription including the appliance, Energize Updates, Instant Replacement, and Unlimited Cloud Storage starting at a list price of $1199 per year.

International pricing and availability vary by region.


Resources
For more information about Barracuda Backup, please visit http://cuda.co/bkup.
IDC Worldwide Quarterly Purpose Built Backup Appliance Tracker, CQ4, March 2015.

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