India develops Urdu font, ‘dumps’ Pakistani font

Ending dependence on Urdu fonts developed by Pakistan, India has developed its own fonts for use on personal computers and mobile phones, benefiting 15 crore Urdu speaking people in the country.

"We were thinking of this last many years and making effort to take Urdu language to people with help of technology. We have delivered it today. Urdu language is deep rooted in Indian culture. Indian history is connected with Urdu language. Inqilaab Zindabad slogan connected every one," Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal said here.

Developed under Department of Electronics and IT, these fonts would be available free of cost for public use.

The font has been developed in two categories- Naskh and Nastaaliq. Naksh, though cursive, is linear in nature. Each letter joins the next movingright to left.

Nastaaliq font moves bothright to left and verticallytop to bottom with the 'nukte' or dots conforming to a strict placement order.

"We were using Urdu but being in India we were taking Pakistan's favour."

"We were using Urdu, Republic of Pakistan butwhen we will install this Urdu font it will appear as Urdu India," National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language Director Khwaja Mohammed Ikram said.

He said globally there are 30 crore Urdu speaking people while India alone has 15 crore of them.

The fonts launched today are compatible Microsoft and Android platform.

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Smartphones adversely affecting your fitness: Study

Smartphones have been amongst the biggest technological revolutions of the past decade, bringing emails, calls, internet and entertainment into your pockets. However, a recent study claims that smartphones are also responsible for lowered fitness level among users.

Faculty members of Education, Health and Human Services at Kent State University, Dr Jacob Barkley and Dr Andrew Lepp conducted a study to see how smartphone usage affects the exercise levels in college students. Unlike television, smartphones are small and portable, making it possible to use them while doing little physical activity.

The two researchers surveyed over 300 college studentsthe US Midwest regarding their smartphone usage and exercise level. Of the sample group, 49 were selected for fitness level and body composition tests. The results showed that those who spent large amounts of time on their phones - as high as 14 hours a day - were less fit than those who used the handsets under 90 minutes daily.

A student who participated in the study said, "Now that I have switched to the iPhone I would say it definitely decreases my physical activity because before I just had a Blackberry, so I didn't have much stuff on it. But now, if I'm bored, I can just download whatever I want."

This is said to be the first study that evaluates the relationship between smartphones and fitness level of users. It has appeared in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

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Panasonic India eyes 25% revenuessmartphones

Japanese electronics major Panasonic is betting big on mobile phones and battery business to reach $3.66 billion in revenueIndia by 2015-16. 

Both the verticals are expected to contribute nearly 25% of the total business of the companythe next financial year, Panasonic India managing director Manish Sharma said today. 

The company clocked around Rs 7,500 crore ($1.3 billion) turnover in the last fiscal and aims to take that figure to $1.65 billion (nearly Rs 9,500 crore at Rs 57.5 a dollar) in the current financial year. Of this, smartphones are expected to contribute around Rs 700 crore in FY14. 

"Majority of this exponential growth comesour smartphone business. This year we may not see a big jump, but next year almost 25% of our business will be contributed by smartphone business." 

"Second is energy business. We are very serious in expanding our battery business. We are currently supplying to some of the Japanese carmakers. This segment is going to expand dramatically with the rollout of 4G services in the country," Sharma said at a press conference here. 

To a query, he said it requires critical mass to set up a mobile phone assembling unit in India and currently they have no plans to establish a facility here. 

"The import tariffs are not very high at this point of time in case of mobile phones. Therefore, it is better to get mobile phones and tabletsChina or Taiwan." 

Panasonic is mulling to launch three new models of mobile phones this month, Sharma said. 

He said there is a huge growth potential in India's rural markets and the company may come out with a cellphone range that suits the requirements of this segment. 

According to him, as much as 70% of the Indian smartphone market is dominated by 2-3 players and hence Panasonic has potential to tap this fast-growing segment. 

In May, the company launched its first quad-core smartphone Panasonic P51 priced at Rs 26,900.

On battery business, Sharma said they will continue to import batteriesoverseas and service the Indian market.

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Nokia unveils Lumia 1020 with 41MP camera

Nokia has unveiled a new Lumia phone with a powerful 41MP camera that promises sharper images, even in low light.

The Nokia Lumia 1020, powered by Windows Phone 8, was introduced on Thursday at an event in New York. The 41MP camera records more detail than other camera phones and even tops point-and-shoot cameras. More pixels mean more sensors for capturing the light that forms an image.

This new smartphone features a technology called Dual Capture, which takes two shots at the same time, one at 38MP resolution and the other at 5MP. The former is meant for photo editing, while the latter is ideal for social media uploads, said Nokia.

The 41MP Zeiss camera has five lenses and features Nokia's PureView imaging technology, along with two types flash - one LED and the other Xenon. In order to provide a better photography experience, the Finnish manufacturer has included the Nokia Pro Camera app and Nokia Rich Recording video capturing technology in this handset. 

Other hardware specs of the Lumia 1020 include 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ Amoled display, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB RAM, 2,000mAh battery and 32GB internal storage.

The company said the smartphone will arrive in US on July 26 on AT&T, priced at $299. After the US launch, Lumia 1020 will be headed to China and key European markets, Nokia said.

Last year, Nokia released a phone featuring a 41MP camera that runs on the now discontinued Symbian operating system. Samsung last month launched a Galaxy S4 variant that has a 16MP camera with Xenon flash on the back.

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Will Narayana Murthy be able to reboot Infosys?

Infosys' first earnings announcement after the return of N R Narayana Murthy is expected to put the retired cofounder under a sharp spotlight as analysts seek clarity on milestones that could signal the company's return to health.

Murthy, who was recalled by the board last month, may have the unenviable task of paring the growth forecast for India's second largest software services exporter as cross-currency swings shave off gainsthe rupee's depreciation against the dollar. The industry veteran has sought three years to "rebuild a desirable Infosys" but an anonymous ET poll of 15 brokerages shows that analysts would want to know sooner that the rebuilding is indeed taking roots.

Analysts said that they expect signs of revival and return of growth momentum in about three quarters. The majority of analysts said that they expect the software exporter to pare its growth guidance6-10% given at the beginning of the fiscal. That pales in comparison with Nasscom's projection of 12-14%.

"Infosys guidance is likely to take centre-stage," wrote Rumit Dugar and Udit Garg of Religare Institutional Research in a note to clients on earnings expectations. For the April-June quarter, Infosys' revenue reported in dollars is expected to grow at a tepid pace of 1-1.5%, which is estimated to be well below that of Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant and HCL Technologies but likely better than Wipro.

Given Murthy's philosophy of predictable growth, there is also an expectation that Infosys may bring back the practice of giving earnings guidance, which it stopped last quarter. At least two analysts polled said they expected Infosys to reintroduce earnings guidancethe next quarter, if notthe current one.

Despite the currency depreciation, which is expected to trickle down to the bottomline, Infosys is expected to report a marginal fall in net profit as it absorbs the effects of an unexpected June wage hike. Falling pricing will also add to pressure on profitability, analysts said. Given that rivals such as Cognizant and TCS are capturing a larger share of the market, Infosys is unlikely to be able to maintain pricing levels, leading to erosion in profit margins.

While the expectations are high, it is not so much about the first quarter numbers, but about visibility into future growth. "NRN's return implies that any disappointment in first quarter may be overlooked," said Sandeep Muthangi, an analyst with IIFL. "What analysts will be watching out for is details on the roadmap and the specifics on the changes that Murthy is seeking to bring about."

The ET poll showed that only a few analysts expect Infosys to return to industry leading growth before the next fiscal or the one after that. Accenture and Oracle performing below expectations has also sobered expectation levels among industry observers.

"Accenture's weak consulting growth indicates that there is still no improvement in the discretionary spending environment, which is likely to hurt companiesInfosys more due to its relatively high exposure to discretionary segments," Nomura analyst Pinku Pappan wrote in a recent note to clients.

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Rupee slide hurts smartphone sales

The booming Indian smartphone market seems to be losing steam as sales growth tapered down in the April-June quarter despite the launch of several new models and buyback and EMI schemes. 

Leading retail chains The Mobile Store, UniverCell and Planet M Retail - which sell mostly smartphones through more than 1,400 outlets across the country - say sales growth slowed to 8-9% in the latest quarter, more than 20% less than the preceding January-March period. 

They attribute the slowdown to a number of reasons including the free falling rupee making imported gadgets more expensive, slowing down of upgradation in the top-end segment and consumer fatigue caused by too many similar products in the market. 

"The huge euphoria in the market during the start of the year has sobered down," Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO of the country's largest cellphone retail chain The Mobile Store, says. "The EMI and buyback war in the January-March quarter pushed up demand but now consumer fatigue seems to have set in," he says. 

The smartphone market, however, is still faring better than cheaper phones. According to the latest databy market tracker GfK-Nielsen, overall handset sales in the country fell 1.6% year-on-year during April-May. On a sequential basis, sales growth was 3% in April and 7% in May, compared to more than 12% growth in the first quarter. GfK-Nielsen's figure for June is yet to be published. 

With brandsSamsung, Sony and HTC increasing prices by 3-6% last week due to the free fall of rupee, retailers fear the demand for high-end smartphones may slow down further. 

Retail chains say sales growth has dampened in the above Rs 25,000 segment despite the launch of a slew of flagship models in the April-June period, including Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Mega, BlackBerry Z10 and Q10, and Nokia's Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia series. They say Apple's iPhone too has hit a plateau in India. 

Videocon Group-owned Planet M Retail CEO Sanjay Karwa says consumers who have brought hi-end models priced above Rs 25,000 last year or early this year are not upgrading so easily for the latest flagship launches. 

"Consumers who brought handsetsiPhone 4S, iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 or Note II are not changing their handsets at the same pace with which they would do whenever a new flagship model would get launched. The macro-economic factors are probably pinching them," he says. 

At Planet M, sales growth of high-end handsets priced above Rs 25,000 has almost halved year-on-year in the quarter ended June. 

Samsung Mobile country head Vineet Taneja, however, says the market leader's sales are not impacted and that its flagship model Galaxy S4 has become the highest selling smartphone in the Rs 25,000-plus segment and registered higher sales than any other flagship device in its first month. 

The Mobile Store, which reported around 15% same-store sales growth in January-March, clocked around 8-9% in the latest quarter. 

UniverCell, the country's second-largest mobile phone retailer with 430 stores, too says its same-store sales growth has come down in April-June. 

D Sathish Babu, managing director at UniverCell Telecom, says sales of sub- 4,000 handsets fell 20% in the latest quarter because telecom operators have suddenly stopped promotional activities such as lower call rates or free SMSes. 

"The options for upgradation in this price has become limited since now even entry-level handsets are feature richdual SIM," he adds. 

Retailers say smartphones priced in the Rs 8,000- 20,000 range is the segment that is growing at a fast pace. There have been a slew of launches in this segment too, including Micromax Canvas 4, Sony Xperia L and Samsung Galaxy Fame and Galaxy Core. 

Indian brands such as Micromax, Karbonn and Videocon plan to launch products in this segment with specification and features that match up to the flagship models of multinationals. 

In fact, Indian brands Micromax and Karbonn were the second- and third-largest smartphone brands in the country in terms of shipment during January-March, according to CyberMedia Research. During this period, 9.4 million smartphones were shipped in India, which was 167.3% more than the year-earlier period. 

Smartphones now account for 26% of the total market by volume and 70% by value.

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Twitter‘s new app lets you sync messages across devices

Microblogging site Twitter recently announced update to its app service acrossmajor devices. 

The updated app allows users to sync direct messages acrosstheir devices and accounts with coordinated update for applications Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, twitter.com, mobile.twitter.com and TweetDeck, Enterprise Innovation reports. 

Apartupdating its apps, Twitter has also improved its search results for Android, iPhone, iPad and mobile.twitter.com. 

According to the report, Twitter users can now see an expanded user result that shows a full bio, making it easier and faster to find and learn more about the accounts they are looking for. 

Meanwhile, social media site Facebook has launched its updated 'Graph Search' feature allowing for more specific searches related to a user's social circle and the results are personalized and unique for everyone, based on what has been shared with them. 

Facebook said that it is now aiming to get mobile Graph Search functional.

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