HTC Desire 600 launched in India at Rs 26,860

Taiwanese manufacturer HTC has launched its Desire 600 smartphone in India. The new handset has a 4.5-inch screen, quad-core processor and dual-sim functionality. At a price of Rs 26,860, this new smartphone will compete against the likes of Google Nexus 4,Samsung Galaxy S4 mini and Sony Xperia SP in the Indian market.

The all-new HTC Desire 600 has a Super LCD 2 display panel with 960x540p resolution and 245ppi pixel density. It has a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, backed by 1GB RAM, and runs on Android4.1 (Jelly Bean). Onboard memory in the phone is 8GB, with microSD support up to 64GB and free Dropbox storage of 25GB.

An 8MP autofocus camera with LED flash is strapped to the back of Desire 600, while a 1.6MP shooter is placed in front. The phone comes with connectivity options like 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, microUSB 2.0 and NFC. The phone has Blinkfeed content aggregator and a 1,860mAh battery, along with BeatsAudio and BoomSound sound enhancement technologies.

HTC Desire 600 is the only smartphone in its price band to feature dual-sim functionality.

Faisal Siddiqui, country head, HTC India, said, "The HTC Desire 600 dual sim combines speed and easy multitasking with the truly innovative HTC BlinkFeed home screen. The result is an affordable mid-range phone that sets the standard for its class, keeping the busiest user up-to-date at a glance and offering them the power and range of features to switch between work and play."

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How to stop receiving ads on Gmail

Google users have been irked with the site sending them advertisements through emails in the Gmail account which appear along the legitimate emails. 

According to the Huffington Post, Google has recently included the feature of sorting emails as per their content in Primary, Social, Promotions and other categories and puts all the ad mails into its designated place. 

However for those who want to get rid of ad emails from their inbox, they can simply click the 'X' on each ad to remove it and Google , as it records the ad response behaviour, will soon realize the kind of ads a user does not want. 

Additionally, one can also click on the gear in the top-right on the main Gmail page and under the menu, click on 'Configure inbox' and just uncheck the box next to 'Promotions' and if wants to get rid of Gmail's new tabs altogether one can uncheck all of the boxes except 'Primary'. 

The report added that when the Promotions tab is disabled, the ads would still show up in the inbox and Google will show the ad one way or another.

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Now, social network to share your happy moments

Facebook and Twitter are all-purpose social networks. People can post anything on them, from saccharine sweet nothings to snarky one-liners.

But what if you wanted a place to just celebrate and share the small moments of happiness in life? Happier, a Boston start-up, has created a niche social network aimed at exactly that.

Think of it like one of those radio stations that feature "love songs, nothing but love songs."Happier is meant to be a place for photos and status updates about things that make its users happy — pulling off a headstand in yoga class, say, or seeing a butterfly. No happy moment is too small, and no negativity is allowed.

It's less wacky than it sounds. Nataly Kogan, the co-founder and chief executive of the company, said that Happier was trying to build a social network with a single trigger that would get people to post to it: a positive life experience that they wanted to share. While you can do that on Facebook or Twitter or on photo-sharing sites like Instagram , she argues that those sites are so broad that users feel like they have to make an impression with each item. The small moments of joy can seem too trivial to post. "On Facebook, God forbid I post a comment that I took five minutes to have a cup of coffee," Kogan said. "You post the best latte in your life on Facebook."

Happier has been operating in earnest since only February, when its iPhone app came out. It is also available through the web, but no Android version is planned anytime soon. Kogan said that so far, a million happy moments have been posted to the site by over 100,000 people.

Her target audience is women in Middle America age 18 to 35.

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IT managers, engineers hardest to find: Study

IT manager/network administrator, engineer, accountant and software developers are some of the positions that are the hardest to fill globally, says a study.

According to a new global study from human capital solutions firm CareerBuilder, companies around the world have at least one thing in common: difficulty filling in-demand jobs as organisations struggle to find qualified candidates.

In India, the positions that take the longest to fill include -- IT manager/network administrator, computer programmer, accountant, engineer, administrative assistant/ secretary and marketing professional.

This survey was conducted online within the US, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia and the UK by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder from May 9 to June 5, 2013 and included more than 5,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals.

The survey further noted that while the positions that take the longest to fill vary from country to country, there are some similarities across the globe as engineering and technology positions and revenue-driving roles such as sales and customer service generally take the longest time to fill.

Besides engineering and technology positions and revenue- driving roles like sales and customer service, countries like US, Russia had difficulty to fill positions like truck driver and security guard, while Japan had difficulty to fill positions like construction worker and tradesperson, it said.

Commenting on the findings, CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson said : "Any positions that remain open for an extended period of time can negatively impact both the financial health of a company and its overall employee morale."

Ferguson added that "we see more hiring managers embracing data tools that can measure market demand and supply of relevant labour in specific geographies, so they can adjust their recruitment strategies and fill vacancies in a timely manner."

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Beware, this mirror can read your mind

Japanese researchers have developed a system, which is capable of manipulating your emotions and personal preferences by presenting you with an image of your own smiling or frowning face.

The researchers were interested to see if the principle that emotional drives can be driven by physiological ones, could be used to build a computer system that manipulates how people feel.

The newly system created by Shigeo Yoshida and colleagues at the University of Tokyo in Japan works by showing a user a webcam image of his or her face - just like they would see when they looked in a mirror, New Scientist reported.

A software subtly alters the image, and turns the corners of the mouth up or down and changes area around the eyes, so that he/she appears to smile or frown.

According to the researchers, the system can be used to manipulate consumers' impressions of products.

For instance, screens showing reflections, which have been altered, could replace mirrors in clothing-store fitting rooms.

The researchers also suggested that people could be likelier to find clothes attractive if they see themselves happy while they are trying the clothes.

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Aircel subscribers to get free Wikipedia access

Telecom operator Aircel today announced its partnership with Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile Wikipedia access to its customers. 

The alliance is aimed at making knowledge available on Wikipedia accessible to all Aircel customers in both rural and urban areas for free, the telco said in a release. 

This initiative is part of the foundation's Wikipedia Zero programme to reach mobile internet users around the world. The partnership will help provide Wikipedia to 60 million new users in the region, it added. 

"Through our alliance with the Wikimedia Foundation, Aircel is not only making internet services reach a wider audience, but also help encourage and enrich the lives of our customers by offering access to knowledge and information free of cost," Aircel chief marketing officer Anupam Vasudev said. 

Aircel customers will be able to access versions of Wikipedia in English, Hindi, Tamil, and 17 other Indic languages. 

"With the partnership, we extend our programme to India where we potentially reach millions of people for the first time." Wikimedia Foundation head of mobile Kul Takanao Wadhwa said.

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iGate doles out retention bonuses to top executives

iGate has given large retention bonuses to five of its executive officers. Each will get $1,50,000 on June 30, 2014, and $1,00,000 on December 31, 2014, provided they are still employed in the company on the applicable payment date. 

The board approved the retention bonus plan on July 17. Srinivas Kandula, global HR head, Derek Kemp, head of sales for EMEA, Asia & Australia, Sean Suresh Narayanan, chief delivery officer, Sujit Sircar, chief finance officer, and Sanjay Tugnait, head of North American sales, are the beneficiaries. 

It's not clear what has prompted the move. The company could not be contacted for a comment. 

On Tuesday, in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), iGate said, "On July 17, 2013, the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors of iGate Corporation approved a retention bonus plan in order to ensure that the key members of the company's management team remain with the company and stay focused on growing the company's business. This retention bonus agreement is supplemental to, and does not impact, other compensation you are entitled to as an employee of the company." 

The committee has also granted each of these executive officers 40,000 restricted stock awards. The restricted stock will vest over four years, with 25% of the awards vesting at the end of each year from the date granted, provided that the officer remains an employee of the company on the applicable vesting date, the filing said. 

The committee has also approved changes to the terms of the performance-based restricted stock awards granted to certain executives, including the five named executive officers , on May 12, 2011, as amended on January 25, 2012.

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What do Intel‘s earnings ‘reveal‘

After decades at the center of Silicon Valley, Intelis now struggling with one of the technology industry's oldest lessons: beware the cheaper, "good enough" competitor. 

For years, Intel executives scoffed at potential threats to its computer chip business from makers of less expensive chips for video games and mobile phones. The largest maker of chips, Intel continued to focus on putting those chips in personal computers, where they could be sold at a high profit margin. 

That strategy appears to have run its course. The quality of mobile and gaming chips made by other companies has improved to a point where they run most of the world's mobile phones and tablets. And partly because more people are turning to those mobile devices, PC sales are waning. 

The move to mobile devices started to hurt Intel's results in recent quarters, but the quarterly earnings that the company reported Wednesday were particularly stark. Net income was $2 billion, or 39 cents a share, a drop of 29 per cent from a year earlier. Revenue was $12.8 billion, down 5 per cent. 

Intel's results were slightly below expectations. Analysts had predicted 40 cents a share and revenue of $12.9 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters. Intel cut projections for annual revenue, gross margin and research and development. 

"At the end of the day, the market will go where the market goes," Brian M Krzanich, Intel's chief executive, said in a call to analysts after the earnings were released. "We've not always lived up to the standards we've set for ourselves." 

Krzanich, who took over in May, has previously said that Intel was slow to see the threat from tablets and smartphones. On Wednesday, he said that organizational changes, along with a renewed commitment to looking for "the next big thing," would bring Intel back. 

In the near term, this means going after the lower end of the PC and tablet market. A new chip will be out in time for the Christmas season, he said, in notebook-type computers that will be sold for as little as $300 and tablets costing $150. Intel also has plans to soon put new chips in higher-end touch-screen devices. 

"He's got to manage in a very tough environment," said Douglas Freedman, analyst with RBC Capital Markets, referring to Krzanich. "Intel has done a good job showing they can make chips for mobile devices and tablets, but in the next three or four quarters he has to show he can bring that home." 

While chips for PCs still make up almost three-quarters of Intel's revenue, few analysts expect thePC market to recover to its old highs. Last week, International Data said that PC sales fell 11.4 per cent in the second quarter of the year. Most of the developed world is now saturated with the machines, and people are buying replacement computers at a slower rate. 

Krzanich said Intel would "leave no computing opportunity untapped" to make up for the loss. In particular, he said, Intel's "highest priority" would be small mobile devices. 

Krzanich has also focused on cost-cutting and streamlining at the company, giving Freedman and others some hope that Intel's profit will rebound. 

In Wednesday's call, the company noted that Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet, which carries a high-margin Intel chip, was not counted in the PC sales numbers by IDC and others. The analysis firm has said, however, that in the first quarter of this year Microsoft's tablets, including tablets not carrying Intel chips, had just 4.4 per cent of the tablet market, compared with 39 per cent for Apple's iPad. There is little to suggest significant improvement from there, an IDC analyst said.

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Woman ‘electrocuted‘ by iPhone in Australia

A 20-year-old Australian woman has been hospitalised in Sydney after she got a shock from her iPhone, according to media reports.


The woman from Sydney's north was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital in a stable condition, the spokeswoman of New South Wales (NSW) Ambulance was quoted as saying in reports.

It is not known if the phone was plugged in to a charger at the time, she said, adding that the paramedics had responded to a number of shocks from mobile phone chargers this year.

Inspector John Brotherhood said it only took a small shock to interfere with your heart.

"Basically, if the jolt moves you, if it takes your breath away or if it's at all a cause for concern, you need to get it checked out," he said.

The incident comes a week after technology giant Apple announced it will launch an investigation into claims that an iPhone electrocuted a Chinese flight attendant who was making a call while charging her iPhone.

NSW Ambulance attended 232 Triple Zero calls for electric shocks between January 1 and June 30 this year, reports said.

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