iPhone 5S delayed over screen size: Report

Apple has reportedly decided to push forward the launch of its latest iPhone 5S in order to switch to a larger screen size. 

Apple was expected to launch its latest mobile phone in September or October. However, the company is speculated to delay the release so as to give it more time to make a switch from a 4-inch screen size to 4.3-inch display, CNET reports. 

According to the report, the iPhone 5S release has been pushed to the end of the year. 

Meanwhile, budget iPhones will be released by October as expected with no change in the design. 

Apple did not comment on the matter, the report added.

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Huawei working on 5G technology

As people across the world get used to the fourth generation (4G) mobile technology, Chinese equipment maker Huawei Technologieshas said it is working on the fifth generation (5G), which is likely to be available for use by 2020. 

The company said presently 200 people are working on the project and it has earmarked a specified amount for the research and development of the technology. It, however, refused to share details about the amount to be spent for the development of the technology. 

Huawei Technologies official Wen Tong said that by 2020, there will be billions of connections and 5G can provide massive connectivity. The technology will enable people to have a fibre network like user experience on a wireless connection. 

It can provide speed of 10GBps, which is 100 times faster than the mobile technology used these days, Tong added. 

South Korean giant Samsung has also announced that it has successfully tested 5G technology and it will be ready for commercial roll-out by 2020. 

Mobile operators across the world have started moving towards the high-speed long term evolution (LTE) or 4G networks and Huawei provides equipment to 85 such networks. 

The company is also undertaking a trial run to test the speed on its 4G technology on high speed MagLev train in Shanghai. 

Huawei has deployed an LTE network to support wireless connectivity on the train, which runs between the centre of the Shanghai district to the International Airport. The total length of the track is 31km and the train achieves a speed of up to 431km per hour. 

The company said on that speed, its 4G technology can provide a download speed of up to 50MBps.

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‘Lighter‘ Facebook coming soon for India, Brazil

 Facebook has been quietly working for more than two years on a project that is vital to expanding its base of 1.1 billion users: getting the social network onto the billions of cheap, simple "feature phones" that have largely disappeared in America and Europe but are still the norm in developing countries like India and Brazil.

Facebook soon plans to announce the first results of the initiative, which it calls Facebook for Every Phone: More than 100 million people, or roughly 1 out of 8 of its mobile users worldwide, now regularly access the social network from more than 3,000 different models of feature phones, some costing as little as $20.

Many of those users, who rank among the world's poorest people, pay little or nothing to download their Facebook news feeds and photos, with the data usage subsidized by phone carriers and manufacturers. Facebook has only just begun to sell ads to these customers, so it isn't making money from them yet.

But the countries in which the simple phone software is doing the best - India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and Vietnam - are among the fastest-growing markets for use of the Internet and social networks, according to the research firm eMarketer.

Like many other giants of the technology industry, Facebook is struggling with the seismic shift of its customers away from computers to mobile devices and erosion of profits that can bring.

Last year, the company overhauled its apps for Apple iPhones and Android-based smartphones to improve mobile access and introduced new types of ads that nudge users to install a new game or other apps on their phones. But customer growth in developed markets like the United States has still slowed dramatically because just about everyone who wants to be on Facebook has already joined the network.

Analysts say that Facebook has a powerful opportunity to win the long-term loyalty of millions of new global users by giving them their first taste of internet through Facebook on a simple cellphone.

"In a lot of foreign markets, people think that the Internet is Facebook," said Clark Fredricksen, a vice president at eMarketer.

Those users, the company hopes, will become more attractive to advertisers as their incomes grow and they gain broader access to the Web.

The feature phone project was driven by a small group of people who joined Facebook in 2011, when it purchased a startup called Snaptu. The team had to re-engineer Facebook's software to drastically shrink the amount of data sent over slow cellular networks. They also had to find a way to quickly display familiar Facebook features like chat and photos on phones with very basic computing power and low-resolution screens.

"We actually run the apps on our servers," said Ran Makavy, who was chief executive of Snaptuand now runs Facebook's feature phone project. "The result was something that looks almost like a smartphone app."

The software has features that are common in more advanced versions of Facebook, including sticker-size emoticons in chat and Instagram-style filters to dress up photos. (Facebook for Every Phone can be used by feature phone customers anywhere, including those in the United States. It can be downloaded from Facebook using the phone's mobile browser or obtained from app stores operated by the phone maker or independent companies like Getjar.)

Brian Blau, who studies consumer technologies at the research firm Gartner, said that given Facebook's mission of linking the entire globe through its service, it needed to reach out to the least tech-savvy customers.

"They talk about socially connecting the world together," he said. "They can't do that until they connect people who don't have smartphones or computers."

To understand how far Facebook has come in its approach to mobile devices, consider this: until two years ago, the only way to sign up for the service was through a Web browser, which is much slower to use than an app. Facebook originally viewed phones as mostly useful for posting status updates, not as a primary way to access the service, said Javier Olivan, who heads Facebook's growth team.

Eventually, the company realized that tens of millions of people in developing countries were eager to try Facebook but had no access to a computer, nor could they afford the $600 iPhones or $40-a-month data plans common in the developed world.

"It became very obvious that the next wave of users would come on mobile only," Olivan said in an interview last week.

To go after those customers, Facebook spent a reported $70 million to buy Snaptu, an Israeli company that had begun to offer primitive versions of Facebook and other apps on simple cellphones.

The acquisition "unlocked an opportunity for us," Olivan said.

From virtually no users on feature phones a couple of years ago, the company has grown to 100 million active users. Facebook declined to offer any specific predictions about the growth of its service on either smartphones or feature phones.

The immediate prospects are modest of making money from feature phone users. During the first quarter of this year, Facebook got only 24 percent of its $1.5 billion in revenue from outside of the United States, Canada and Europe. It is just beginning to ramp up its mobile advertising revenue, which was 30 percent of its overall global ad revenue in the first quarter. Those mobile ads are not as profitable as desktop ads, whose growth is flat.

The company will report its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, but analysts expect that developed markets will be the biggest source of Facebook's revenue and profit for a long time.

Still, there is a longer-term business opportunity, for both Facebook and its phone industry partners, as mobile usage grows in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

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Hexaware to increase campus hiring

The stock of Hexaware Technologies has posted gains in each of the nine trading sessions and has continued its upward march during the morning trade on Monday. Its cumulative gain so far works out to be 14.4%.

The stock did come under pressure soon after the company reported a muted sequential revenue growth for the June 2013 quarter on Friday. Butit recovered soon on account of a projection of a strong growth in the next quarter due to healthy order flow. The stock is likely to retain gains in the coming sessions and may even expand it further considering the growth prospects.

The Mumbai headquartered mid-tier IT services firm reported a marginal 0.8% increase sequentially in revenue at $94.8 million for the June quarter, which is its second quarter of the December ending fiscal. The company's margin at the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT margin or operating margin) rose sharply by 460 basis points sequentially to 22% helped by the weaker rupee against the major currencies and lower selling, general, and administrative expenses.

For the September quarter, the company has guided for a strong 3.5-5.5% sequential revenue growth following a better momentum in the US and Europe and higher order booking. The operating margin, however, is likely to remain in the narrow range of +1% and -1% of the June quarter margin assuming the rupee rate at the end of the quarter, according to the company's chairman Atul Nishar. An expected rise in the selling expenses would hold the margin in the narrow band.

Considering higher order flow, the company will undertake more campus recruitments or freshers. "We expect headcount to go up as over 100 fresh graduates will join us," said Nishar. The company reported a headcount of 8,700 for the June 2013 quarter.

He said the company is looking for candidates for a possible acquisition in the US in the range of $40-50 million, which will be funded by using the company's operating cash flows. It reported Rs 587.6 crore in cash and equivalents at the end of the June 2013 quarter. The acquisition is expected to take place by the end of the March 2014 quarter.

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IIT-Guwahati invites entries for techno-management fest

IIT-Guwahati is giving budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to get their ideas launched and projects incubated. The institute has called for entries for its annual techno-management festival -- Techniche 2013 -- to be held from August 29 to September 1.

IIT-Guwahati will play host to inspirational lectures, quality workshops, social initiatives and challenging competitions in the four days.

Applications are invited from future entrepreneurs and engineering graduates.

"Last year we received good response from students in Chennai, and this year too we are expecting several entries," said Tarun Kalluri, a student of IIT-Guwahati handling media relations for Techniche.

The management events will be held in collaboration with the entrepreneurial development cell of IIT-G. The corporate module of the festival will include a case study competition in collaboration with the Harvard Business Review. "It is being organized with the cardinal aim of helping the contestants fortify their skills," the organizers said in a press release. The winners will get cash prizes.

Other events include Stratagem, which requires participants to propose a marketing strategy for a given problem statement, Product Launch, in which the students will have to bring a new innovative product into the market, and Blue Chips, the virtual stock market game. Postermania will have students advertising a product and its essential elements through a poster.

A panel of venture capitalists, investors and entrepreneurs will judge the contests.

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Huawei opens club for users, techies in Bangalore

Leading Chinese ICT solutions provider Huawei Technologies has unveiled a club in this city to engage its users and techies to build better user experiences. 

"As a unique platform, Huawei Club will provide a channel for the company to listen to consumers, showcase latest products and services, offer online content and facilitate direct interaction with our research and development engineers," Huawei Technologies India chief operating officer Wison Wang said in a statement Sunday. 

The club, first of its kind outside China, is a maiden initiative by any smartphone maker to conduct regular events for its members across colleges in cities and tech fairs. 

The first club was launched last year in China and became popular with five million people joining as members. 

Unlike other clubs in the city, the tech club will promote its new user interface (Emotion UI) embedded in Huawei smartphones as an Android based man-machine interaction system for smart terminals. 

"At the club, our smartphone and tablet owners can enjoy vivid display, have fun customising their device, customise home screens with applications for switching between themes," Wilson said. 

As a global consumer-centric initiative to connect user communities the world over, the club will drive new features and meet new experience requirements by collaborating with end users. 

"Members can also benefit from the club by experiencing our latest range of smartphones, tablets, interact with geeks, developers, user interface experts and product managers," Wilson said. 

The club will also serve as a platform for members to provide feedback on innovative ideas and enhance the product experience. 

Huawei deployed its range of products and services in about 140 countries in 2012, serving more than one-third of the world's population. 

"We believe everyone can be the centre of information and the world would be a better place if access and information barriers were knocked down," Wilson said. 

In India, Huawei devices have been offering a range of products to around 25 million Indian households and enterprises.

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Digital currency to abet cyberlaundering: Report

The growing use of digital currency will result in rise in cyberlaundering ashacking attacks and online scams take centre stage on internet, says a latest report. 

It said the Indian banks and authorities may wary as money laundering using online black-marketing route and other techniques will expand with the use of digital currency. 

"This new techniques of money laundering (using digital currency) includes opening accounts with low cost and little known payment gateways, buying digital currencies, purchasing stolen data, setting up online shops with payment gateways, using the bank accounts of money mules to transfer so earned money to different countries," said the report by Pune-based 'Indiaforensic'. 

The firm, which conducts fraud examination and forensic accounting among others, has helped the country's investigating agencies like CBI in several high-profile cases including multi-crore Satyam scam. 

Digital currency is the alternative to the traditional currency, which is used in online transactions. It is very similar to the operations of the loyalty points. 

The report -- 'Laundering in Cyber World- The Digital Currency Way' -- cited a recent case in the US involving 'Liberty Reserve' -- a digital currency website which was used for laundering at least USD 6 billion by data thieves, drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves, hackers and other criminals. 

"Traditional money laundering has often been a secondary process - preceded by an illegal activity, such as drug trafficking but the liberty reserve case shows that data thefts, hacking attacks and online scams are replacing the traditional crimes and the digital currency is now at the centre of the laundering operations," said Mayur Joshi, head of Indiaforensic. 

According to the research conducted by Indiaforensic in 2011, the estimated size of money laundering in India was Rs 18.86 lakh crore for the 2000-2010. 

"Now the money laundering is expected to grow even faster with the digital currencies," it said.

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Amazon vs IBM: Big Blue meets its match

The tech industry maxim that "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" is a testament to how Big Blue has been the gold standard in computing services for decades. 

But IBM faces an unlikely challenger inAmazon.com, the e-commerce retail giant that is becoming a force in the booming business of cloud computing, even winning backing from America's top spy agency. 

After years of being dismissed as a supplier of online computer services to start-ups and small businesses, Amazon Web Services (AWS) beat out International Business Machines this year to snag a $600 million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency. 

IBM has successfully appealed its loss in the contest, stalling it for now. But the episode highlights how Amazon is evolving from an online retailer into a competitive provider of information technology and services to big companies, and government bodies. 

That has helped push Amazon shares to a new record ahead of the company's second-quarter results due on Thursday. Amazon doesn't break out AWS results, but Wall Street believes it is expanding faster than the retail business and is more profitable. 

"AWS is one of the main spokes of the bull case on Amazon shares," argues Ron Josey, an analyst at JMP Securities. "Software and IT investors are aware of and are trying to size AWS, and what the impact could be on their sector." 

IBM is entrenched in corporations across the globe; and with one of the industry's biggest research budgets, is likely to remain so for some time. But it and other players like Oracle are taking note of AWS as cloud computing takes off. 

Public cloud computing, which AWS pioneered in 2006, lets companies rent computing power, storage and other services from data centers shared with other customers - typically cheaper and more flexible than maintaining their own. 

Amazon has begun to build a portfolio of significant clients, including Samsung, Pfizer, the Public Broadcasting Service and NASA, the U.S. space agency. 

That unexpected threat is rippling through the sector. After two quarters of falling sales, Oracle announced partnerships in June with former foes Microsoft and Salesforce.com, a response in part to AWS's expansion. 

"AWS is having a really meaningful impact on IT and the big incumbent companies like IBM are reacting to that now," said Colby Synesael, an analyst at Cowen & Co, who covers Rackspace Hosting, one of Amazon's main rivals in the cloud. 

From bookstore to tech
Amazon began life as an online bookseller, but in past years has expanded into everything from tablet computers to video. Critics say it is spending heavily with little regard for the bottom line. 

But its stock hit a record $309.39 on July 16 and is up more than 22 percent this year. In contrast, Oracle is down 4 percent in 2013. IBM, which reported a fifth straight quarterly sales fall on Wednesday, is up 1 percent. (For a chart: link.reuters.com/nah79t) 

AWS slashed prices on one of its popular services, EC2, this month and Rackspace shares promptly slid, leaving them down more than 45 percent so far this year. 

AWS generates at least $2 billion a year in revenue now from a total pie of more than $60 billion, according to analysts who expect that to quintuple to more than $10 billion in coming years, partly driven by higher government cloud spending. 

The tussle with IBM over the CIA contract has helped burnish Amazon's credentials, increasing Wall Street's confidence in the ability of AWS to compete with the big boys of enterprise IT. 

Five companies vied for the contract - AWS, IBM, Microsoft, AT&T and another unidentified firm, according to a report on the bidding by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. 

When AWS won, IBM protested, triggering the report by the GAO. The agency recommended in June that the CIA re-do some parts of its contract negotiations, giving IBM another chance. 

But the GAO also stated that AWS's offering was superior. 

"In every technical criterion Amazon out-scored IBM, one of the most sophisticated and capable IT companies in the world," said Carlos Kirjner, an analyst at Bernstein Research. 

The CIA had "grave" concerns, according to the GAO report, about IBM's ability to provide "auto-scaling," a feature that automatically adds or removes computing power in response to applications use. 

"Auto-scaling is very complex and there are not many cloud providers that can do it well, but Amazon is great at it," said Kyle Hilgendorf, a cloud computing analyst at Gartner. "I don't think anyone thinks IBM has a better cloud service." 

IBM spokesman Clint Roswell said there were "inaccuracies" in the government's assessment of its CIA proposal. 

"IBM remains committed to providing enterprise-level secure and robust cloud solutions and looks forward to a renewed opportunity to show our capabilities to fulfill the requirements of this important agency," he added. 

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment on the CIA contract. A CIA spokesman also declined to comment. 

IBM bought SoftLayer Technologies, a rival to AWS, for $2 billion in June. That could help it when the CIA comes calling again, said Bill Moran at Ptak Associates. 

"They do not need any other issue like 'auto-scaling' to bedevil them the next time around," he added.

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Apple testing big-screen iPhone, 13-inch iPad: WSJ

Apple's iPhone 5 has the smallest screen among all flagship smartphones, even though it is the biggest amongst iPhones. However, that may change soon, as the company reportedly is testing larger screens for both iPhones and iPads. This has been reported in The Wall Street Journal, which cites officials at Apple suppliers involved in the process.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple has asked suppliers for prototype iPhones with screens measuring over 4-inch. The report, which cites officials at Apple suppliers as sources, also says that Apple has called for iPad display designs that measure just under 13-inch.

iPhone 5, the biggest smartphone in Apple's line-up, has a 4-inch screen, while the full-sized iPad has a 9.7-inch display.

"The tests with suppliers seem to suggest that Apple is exploring ways to capture diversifying customer needs at a time when many mobile device makers offer smartphones and tablets in various sizes," says the report. However, it also adds that it remains unclear if the iPhonemaker will actually bring these devices to the market, as it often tests different designs for its products.

Apple suppliers reportedly began manufacturing the next-generation iPhone last month. WSJ says that the company has told Hon Hai Precision Industry to start shipping the model in late August. It is also said to be working on a cheaper iPhone that will come in multiple colouroptions and have a starting price tag of $349.

It is rumoured that Apple will begin manufacturing the fifth-generation iPad by the end of this month. The refreshed tablet is said to have the same 9.7-inch screen size as its predecessor, but a thinner display and slimmer profile.

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Twitter co-founder‘s advice to Facebook

Twitter co-founder has reportedly suggested business idea to social media giant Facebook to charge users a premium if they want to have an ad-free version of the site. 

According to Mashable, co-founder Biz Stone has said that since the Facebook ads are not 'particularly useful or engaging', the site should rather offer a premium option that would let users pay 10 dollars a month to have the site's ad-free version. 

Stone further said that for $10-a-month, people who really love Facebook and can afford to pay could see no ads along with some special features and if 10% of Facebook is signed up, it would account for one billion a month in revenue, the report added.

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Women own more tablet PCs than men in UK : Study

For the first time, more tablet computers are owned by women in Britain than by men, a new study has found. 

The majority of tablet owners in the UK are women, with the share of female owners increasing by 9 percentage points in the past year, researchers said. 

The figures for the 2013 survey show that females own 52 per cent of the tablets in the UK, up from 43 per cent in 2012. In the same period the share of tablets owned by men has fallen from 57 to 48 per cent. 

YouGov's latest Tablet Tracker report indicates a surge in the number of 18-34 year olds owning tablets with the group growing by seven percentage points over the past year. In 2012, the under-35s made up 19 per cent of the market but this grew to 26 per cent by 2013. 

The only age group that has seen a decline in share over the past year is the over-55s, whose proportion of ownership has fallen from 42 to 31 per cent, researchers said. 

The more even distribution of ownership across age groups indicates that the UK tablet market is becoming more mainstream, they said. 

The study found that 22 per cent of the adult population now own a tablet, up from 18 per cent last quarter. Furthermore, 26 per cent of the UK households own a tablet. 

Researchers said the growth in ownership looks set to continue with close to a fifth (19 per cent) of non-tablet owners identified as "hot prospects" to obtain one of the devices in the future. 

The report found that over a quarter (27 per cent) of these prospects are aged 18-44 and more than a third (34 per cent) are female. 

"The early adopters of tablets have typically been affluent males. As they buy the latest models, they have placed their old devices on to the secondary market or give them to other members of their household," John Gilbert, Lead Director at YouGov Technology & Telecoms, said.

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Steve Jobs movie ‘Jobs‘ releasing in India on Aug 16

The Ashton Kutcher starrer Steve Jobs biopic "Jobs" is set to hit Indian theatres on August 16.

Based on the life of the co-founder of Apple, the biopic is directed by Joshua Michael Stern and stars Ashton Kutcher, who plays the late Steve Jobs, along with Josh Gad, JK Simmons, Matthew Modine and Dermot Mulroney.

The movie, being released in India by PVR Pictures, chronicles his darkest days, biggest triumphs, his dreams, hopes and passions and his aspiration to change the world and question the impossible.

"JOBS" tells the tale of Jobs' ascension from college dropout into technological genius. The film was selected as the closing film for the Sundance Film Festival.

"Steve Jobs is regarded as a luminary in every sense of the word and we are pleased to bring his biopic to the Indian audiences. The film gives an insight into the life and times of the great innovator and entrepreneur that he was," said Kamal Gianchandani, president, PVR Pictures.

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Soon, touchscreens to identify fingerprints

A new touchscreen display, which is capable of identifying fingerprints, is closer to reality. 
Not only will the display redefine online security but could revolutionise the way in which humans and computers interact in the public sphere. 

Current touchscreens emit light but are not able to sense it, which makes it impossible to identifyfingerprints unless a supplemental sensor is added. 

Researchers Christian Holz of the Hasso PlattnerInstitute in Germany told New Scientist that these touchscreens cannot scan fingerprints and fingerprint sensors are not able to show images. 

Holz and fellow researcher Patrick Baudisch's prototype uses a glass screen, made up of millions of 3-millimetre-long optical fibres that have been bunched together vertically. 

From an image projector that is mounted below the glass, each fibre is able to pipe out visible light rays. 

Meanwhile, from a source adjacent to the projector, an infrared light bounces off the fingerprints and back down to an infrared camera.

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Device that translates sign language into text for deaf

Researchers have developed a novel computer system that enables deaf people to translate gestures used in sign language into text. 

Using the new technology, people who are deaf or hard of hearing can simply type words and sentences using a keyboard and read those typed to them, researchers said. 

Researchers Microsoft Asia and the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in this latest effort turned to Microsoft's Kinect device. 

They showcased the software that has been developed for the Kinect that successfully translates American Sign Language (ASL) into text, Phys.org reported. 

The system operates in two modes: The first, called simply Translation Mode, translates physical hand or body movements into text or speech. 

The second, called Communication Mode, allows a person speaking in ASL to communicate with someone else who is communicating in typed English. 

The system uses an Avatar to translate text coming from someone typing text on a keyboard, then converts their response to text and sends it back to the other person. 

The demonstration by researchers showed that the system is capable of translating sentences, not just words, a significant step forward. 

The researchers stressed that their system is still a work in progress but hope to eventually create a system that is fully functional and reasonably inexpensive. 

Researchers said that would mean a Kinect based communication system that operates entirely with hand gestures and spoken words - all in real time. Also, it would allow for conversion to other sign language dialects as well.

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Apple TV may get gesture control feature

The new Apple TV may have gesture control as one of its features, according to fresh rumours sparked off by sources close to the company. 

According to The Huffington Post, there was a lot of talk recently about the TV that is said to be in development and Apple is working on a service that would allow people to skip TV advertisements, with the company paying money to the networks that they would lose with fewer people watching the ads. 

The report said that the news follows Apple's plans to purchase PrimeSense, an Israeli company which designs 3D sensors that allows people to interact with devices, being the technology behind Xbox Kinect. 

The report added that the company's facial and body recognition technology could given an Apple TV the power to recognize who is watching, enabling the device to have customized profiles.

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