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Business
Tuesday, 17 September 2013
Samsung launches Galaxy Note 3 at Rs 49,900 in India
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Note 3 is a successor to Galaxy Note 2, which was launched last year and was received very well in the market. The new Note has a 5.7-inch screen with a SuperAMOLED panel. It has the FullHD resolution with 1920 x 1080 pixels. It is the first smartphone to pack in 3GB RAM. It comes with 32GB internal storage as well as supports microSD card. While the body is made of plastic, in a first for a Samsung smartphone, the back cover uses a leather-like material to give it a more premium finish. The device sports a primary camera that can shoot 13MP images while the front camera comes with a tag of 2MP.
Note 3 weighs 168 grams. The Indian version of the device is powered by Exynos Octa 5420 processor. The processor has two set of cores. One set of four cores based on A15 architecture runs at 1.9GHz. The other set of low-performance cores based on A7 architecture runs at 1.3GHz. For now the processor can utilize only one set of cores at a time. But Samsung is likely to release a software patch by the end of this year that will make device use all 8 cores in various combinations for the best balance between performance and battery life.
Note 3 processor features the next-generation Mali chip called T628, which is one of the fastest mobile graphics chips at the moment.
But the highlight of the device is its multi-functional stylus. When used in combination with special software features, the stylus in Note 3 not only allows a user to scribble their thoughts into the notepad app but also offers additional options for better multitasking and switching between apps.
Samsung said it is expecting the Note 3 to contribute significantly to its bottom line during this festival season. Note 3 will be available with special EMI schemes from day one. However, for now Samsung has not planned any exchange offer for the device.
"Galaxy Note 3 represents the next evolution of Note experience. It meets the needs of consumers for a larger screen, makes everyday life easier with the S Pen... It is slimmer, lighter, and more powerful," said Vineet Taneja, country head for Samsung Mobile & It.
With Galaxy Gear, meanwhile, the Korean company is hoping to get in front of others in the area of wearable computing devices, which are expected to be part of the next big technology wave. Gear is a smartwatch with 1.63 inches SuperAMOLED screen. It has a single core 800MHz processor, 512MB RAM and 4GB internal storage. One of the big features of the watch is a 1.9MP camera that will allow a user to shoot images with a flick of his wrist.
The smartwatch will allow users to receive or make calls. It will also show them notifications from social media apps. It has a gyroscope, accelerometer and pedometer, which makes it suitable for tasks like monitoring of physical activity of a user in real time. Samsung said that a number of native apps will be available for Gear.
The device currently works with Note 3 and Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 edition), which will be launched in India in the coming weeks. Samsung said that support for additional devices, including Galaxy S4, will be added at a later date.
Gear is a new type of device. To make sure that consumers understand it and utilize it properly, Samsung is planning to demo the watch at its retail stores extensively. The company has also decided to feature and highlight Gear in all Note 3 advertisements and promotions to showcase its utility when paired a smartphone.
BBM for Android may launch on Sept 20
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Nigeria unit, the BBM for Android app would be available from Friday, September 20, onwards.
However, according to the tweet, the app will initially be exclusive to Samsung phones for the first three months. Also, it is not clear from if the agreement is exclusive to Nigeria or is a global agreement.
After the initial three months, the app is likely to be available on all Android phones. Recently, alleged photos of the BBM app were leaked online and there were reports that it would be available to a select few accounts.
Reports were also doing the rounds that BlackBerry has been handing out invitations for an event scheduled for September 20. It is being expected that the
BBM would be made available for the iOS and Android operating systems. There are also speculations that BlackBerry may unveil its new Z30 smartphone at the event.
Top cybersecurity expert hacks Nasdaq in 10 mins
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Ilia Kolochenko, head of Swiss information security company High-Tech Bridge, said that despite his repeated warnings, the exchange has done nothing to fix the problem.
According to New York Daily News, Kolochenko has claimed that a good hackers can get full access to Nasdaq.com in a couple of days with the ability to do almost whatever he wants, such as push an announcement that Facebook shares have dropped 90 percent, which could cause havoc on the stock exchange.
The report said that recently the Nasdaq's trading was halted because of an incident that the exchange called a 'technical glitch' but some computer experts said resembled the work of political hackers.
Kolochenko said that he inputted some code into the website's script to see if it would be detected before displaying on the site, but it was not, which means that anyone could inject arbitrary HTML code into the site to display malicious information, seek credit card numbers, etc.
Meanwhile, spokesman for Nasdaq said that the exchange responded to Kolochenko's discovery on September 4 adding that they take all security matters seriously and work with leading security experts to evaluate all credible threats across their digital assets.
The report added Kolochenko saying that an attacker would just send a unique web address in a private message to Nasdaq technical support or administrators, and with a single click could steal very sensitive information from the browser.
How Mettl is changing online examinations
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Disruption-free computer networking has popularized online education, commonly abbreviated as MOOC, or massive open online courses. They are web-based classes that students can complete at their own pace. Perhaps more challenging than teaching and learning online, is aptitude assessment and skill testing. Four years ago, when online learning itself was a niche area, Ketan Kapoor and Tonmoy Shingal saw an opportunity in the run-of-the-mill assessment tools that were available then. "We realized that assessment as a practice could do with a lot of innovation. There was a need for a disruptive transformation as the demand for skill-based professionals increased exponentially. Moreover, none of the existing online assessment tools could provide skill-based assessment at a large scale," says Kapoor.
Thus was born Mettl, which is now being used to test technical, functional, behavioural, sales, accounting, leadership and other skills through broad-based, multi-dimensional, analytical methods.
The Mettl software has a number of unique features. One of them is the ability to perform high-stake assessment with automatic invigilation empowered by advanced proctoring, which Kapoor says is an aspect that is unmatched globally.
The virtual and remote proctoring involves a set of auto-invigilation algorithms employed while a student is taking a test at a remote location.
Mettl's online proctoring technology eliminates the need for manual invigilation. It prevents candidates from navigating away from test window and blocks the copy-paste option. The test administrator can detect if a candidate tries to move away from the screen or refer a book by capturing live images on a web camera.
Another unique feature is that of measuring skills online. The platform assesses the skills of the candidates by evaluating their performance in simulated situations. Some of Mettl's simulators include coding simulator (evaluation of programming skills closer to the actual work environment), voice-based simulator (tests the skills required in the BPO industry in the voice-based process) and case-study simulator (judging acumen of the candidate in solving business case study).
Mettl can even go to the extent of finding out if the candidate entered the answer by approaching the question in a logical or arbitrary manner.
The evaluation summarizes and gives a detailed report of the candidate. It also does an analysis of candidates on multiple dimensions (raw score, time taken to solve an answer, accuracy level, etc.)
Mettl has caught on now with about 150-200 clients of which 10 are global organizations. Some of the prominent ones include Cognizant, Capgemini, Accenture, Wipro, HCL, Inmobi and Makemytrip.com. Tavinder Pal Singh Arora, VP, NIIT says that such a platform helps make training assessments quickly across multiple test centres concurrently.
Sreenivasa Rao, VP and India Talent Head, Capgemini, says, "We hire around 1,500 people every month and screen around 20,000 candidates to hire this number.
We use Mettl for 60% of our online assessments, and we have found the platform adaptable and customizable" The company, which was initially self-funded by the founders, is now funded by 9 investors led by Kalaari Capital who have put in around $4 million.
Google buys file transfer app Bump
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Google has acquired Bump, the maker of a smartphone app that allows users to share files by bumping devices together.
The two companies did not release financial terms of the deal.
In a blog post announcing the acquisition, Bump CEO David Lieb said the company's apps, which also include a photo sharing service, Flock, will keep working for now.
In a blog post from late March, Bump said that its namesake app was downloaded 125 million times. The Bump app was launched more than four years ago.
"The Bump team has demonstrated a strong ability to quickly build and develop products that users love, and we think they'll be a great fit at Google," Mountain View, California-based Google said in an emailed statement. Bump is also based in Mountain View.
The two companies did not release financial terms of the deal.
In a blog post announcing the acquisition, Bump CEO David Lieb said the company's apps, which also include a photo sharing service, Flock, will keep working for now.
In a blog post from late March, Bump said that its namesake app was downloaded 125 million times. The Bump app was launched more than four years ago.
"The Bump team has demonstrated a strong ability to quickly build and develop products that users love, and we think they'll be a great fit at Google," Mountain View, California-based Google said in an emailed statement. Bump is also based in Mountain View.
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