Nissan and PlayStation Launch GT Academy in India To Find Motorsport Talent

Nissan and PlayStation have launched a GT Academy in India with the aim of trying to find local motor racing talent. This academy is the newest in a line that includes similar institutions in Europe, Russia, Middle East, South Africa, and USA.

GT Academy’s qualifying malls will begin with live events to boost awareness at high footfall, popular malls in five Indian cities, followed by Nissan hosting the inaugural competition at the Delhi Auto Expo, one of the world’s most eminent auto expos, on February 6 2014. There will also be an online qualifier on PSN.

Matthew De La Haye, Nissan’s Vice President Communications, Africa, Middle East, India and Europe said, “We’re delighted to launch GT Academy in India; bringing the programme here reinforces our commitment to growing the Nissan brand and developing relationships with both existing and potential customers. GT Academy really proves that Nissan stands for innovation and excitement for everyone.”

Darren Cox, Nissan’s Director of Global Motorsports said, “For many reasons having India join the GT Academy programme has been a long held personal objective of mine and I’m proud that it has now come to fruition. GT Academy is getting huge international interest. We know that there are gamers outside of the traditional GT Academy territories that want a shot at winning so in 2014 we have extended the program to India as well. Nissan is an international company with global ambitions and it’s exciting that GT Academy reflects that.”

Hyundai joins mini sedan race with Xcent

NEW DELHI: There's a race for entry-level sedans that are typically under 4-meters in length, use diesel engines that are sub-1,500cc and petrol that are under 1,200cc. The excise duty on them is lower and these affordable mini-sedans are feeding the appetite of aspirational Indians who want a "car with a boot". 

After Honda and Ford, it is now Hyundai's turn to enter this fast-growing segment created originally by Tata Motors when it rolled out a truncated version of its Indigo sedan. Others replicated Tata's formula, but Maruti's Dzire, an elongated version of the Swift, stole the march. 

Hyundai is now gunning for this segment, but when competition is getting stiffer. Honda's Amaze came in as a tough challenger to Dzire and now Tata has driven in the Zest and Ford its Figo sedan concept. Hyundai plans an early start in contrast to Tata and Ford, who will take a while to put their models in the market. The Xcent will debut in March. Hyundai is understood to be planning "aggressive pricing" to make it highly competitive, officials said. The car that borrows its name from the company's old warhorse, the now phased-out Accent (with a tweak in the spelling), focuses on Indian driving needs and lifestyles. The Xcent, expected to be highly fuel efficient, will have both petrol and diesel engines. And, Hyundai says it will have automatic and manual versions. The company plans to offer safety features like ABS and air bags on some variants. "The Xcent is a world-class product developed for India," Hyundai India MD BS Seo said. 

PC shipments slump seven percent as businesses continue to shun Windows 8

GLOBAL PC SHIPMENTS have declined by seven percent over the last year, analysis outfit Canalys has reported, backing similar reports by fellow market watchers IDC and Gartner.

Unlike its counterparts, Canalys counted tablet shipments in its PC sales figures, which it said showed a global rise of 18 percent over the last year. However, because tablets accounted for 48 percent, almost half of the total PC market, the firm said that the rest - PCs, laptops and notebooks - saw a worldwide decline of 6.9 percent year on year, with shipments falling in all regions.

The market tracker said tablet shipments alone grew 65 percent year on year to reach 76.3 million units.

Although PC shipments are in downward spiral overall, Canalys reported that commercial demand is improving as businesses face up to the need to migrate from Windows XP. However, along with this it seems that there's an uncertain future for Windows 8 in the commercial sector.

"Windows 8 will not be a major beneficiary as many businesses will take the safer option of moving to Windows 7," the firm said. "Vendors heavily exposed to the consumer notebook market still face an uncertain future. Windows 8 uptake remains weak and the PC refresh cycle shows no sign of returning."

"With Windows 9 reported to be scheduled for an April 2015 release, Microsoft risks losing momentum unless it does something drastic to turn its Windows business around," Canalys added, saying that consumers are becoming more open to Windows alternatives such as Google's operating systems.

The market leader in both tablet and PC shipments was Apple, which shipped 30.9 million units in the fourth quarter to take a 19.5 percent share of the market.

It shipped 26 million iPads, which accounted for 84.3 percent of its total shipments in the fourth quarter. Apple's share of the overall tablet market increased in the fourth quarter to 34 percent from 27 percent from the third quarter, with the launch of the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display being responsible for the increase.

"But competition is mounting and Android tablets are falling in price, which will put pressure on Apple's market share in 2014," Canalys added.

Lenovo held second place in Canalys rankings, securing 12 percent share of the total PC market in the fourth quarter.

Lenovo's PC shipments increased 26 percent year on year, driven by what Canalys said was growth outside its core Chinese market, where its shipments declined, and rising in Europe.

"Lenovo's 11.7 percent decline in notebook shipments in China was offset by impressive growth in other regions, notably EMEA, where shipments grew 30.4 percent," the firm said.

"Lenovo was early to embrace Android as a tablet OS, while the likes of HP and Dell waited for Windows 8 and prioritised margin over volume. Lenovo's strategy has paid off, not only in its home market but worldwide."

In December, IDC said that the PC market will decline worse than had been expected in 2013, as smartphones and tablets continue to dominate the consumer technology market.

"Worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by -10.1 percent in 2013, slightly below the previous projection of -9.7 percent, and by far the most severe yearly contraction on record," IDC said in its Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker report.

Gartner also predicted similar trends. During the third quarter of 2013, the firm said sales of PC devices in Western Europe fell year on year by 12.8 percent, but in the UK the decline was 21.1 percent, more than in France and Germany. µ

 

Samsung, LG to Unveil Smartphones at Mobile Expo

Samsung and LG electronics will unveil their latest smartphones at the Mobile World Congress 2014 that opens in Barcelona on Feb. 24.

Samsung on Tuesday announced that it will hold an event at the fair to showcase its latest smartphones including the Galaxy S5, the latest model in the popular series.

The Korean electronics giant also plans to unveil the latest version of its wearable smartphone Galaxy Gear.

LG plans to unveil the G Pro 2, a device halfway between a tablet PC and a phone like Samsung's Galaxy Note series at the expo. It could be launched in Korea even before the event.

Apple urges court to put e-books antitrust monitor on hold Reuters, February 05, 2014

Apple Inc urged a federal appeals court on Tuesday to put a court-appointed antitrust monitor on hold, arguing that his efforts were harming the company's business.

The iPhone maker asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to halt monitor Michael Bromwich's work while the court considers Apple's bid to remove him altogether, a process that could last several months.

(Also see: Apple seeks removal of monitor appointed in ebooks case)

"We can't turn back the clock," said Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer for Apple, in explaining why the company would suffer irreparable harm if the monitor is allowed to continue before the appeals court has a chance to decide whether his appointment was appropriate in the first place.

But a U.S. Department of Justice lawyer told the court that the monitor was essential to ensure that Apple complies with the law, after a federal judge last summer found the company liable for conspiring with five publishers to raise e-book prices. Apple, the lawyer said, cannot be trusted to comply on its own.

(Also see: Apple conspired to raise prices of ebooks, rules judge)

"The preliminary injunction demands that Apple fully understands why and how it needs to comply with antitrust laws, not a year from now but today," Finnuala Tessier said.

The three-judge panel said it would take Apple's request under advisement. For now, the monitor's work is on hold until the court determines whether to grant Apple a longer stay.

The hearing followed months of legal wrangling over Bromwich, who was appointed by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in October to oversee Apple's compliance policies in light of her finding that Apple had illegally fixed e-book prices. Cote rejected Apple's bid to stop the monitor's work in January, and the company appealed to the 2nd Circuit.

Apple has accused Bromwich of aggressively and unnecessarily pursuing multiple interviews with top executives, including Jonathan Ive, the company's chief designer. It has also complained that Bromwich's fees and duties would cost it millions of dollars.

But the judges seemed skeptical of those arguments, noting that Apple is one of the world's richest companies.

"Maybe if they had spent some of their very valuable time keeping the company from violating antitrust laws, perhaps they wouldn't be in this position," Judge Gerard Lynch said.

Apple also argued that under Cote's order, Bromwich's powers are far too broad, permitting him unfettered access to executives and documents.

Under questioning from the judges, Tessier said the monitor's duties are limited to ensuring that effective policies are developed and implemented. He is constrained from investigating instances in which the company may have violated antitrust law and must turn over any such evidence to the court, she said.

6th generation Amazon Kindle Paperwhite out in India, starts at Rs 10,999

Amazon’s new Kindle Paperwhite is now available in India on Amazon.in and also at over 250 retail outlets across the country including Croma, Reliance Digital, E-Zone, and Vijay Sales stores. The new Kindle Paperwhite with Wi-Fi only is priced at Rs 10,999 while the Wi-Fi + 3G version is priced at Rs 13,999. You can check out our review of the new Kindle Paperwhite tablet with 3G here.

It weighs only 206 grams which is lighter than the 222 grams of the previous Paperwhite. Dimensions are identical at 169 x 117 x 9.1 mm, with a 6-inch capacitive touchscreen as was seen with the older model.

Some of the new features in the 6th generation Kindle Paperwhite are:

• New display technology with higher contrast:  According to Amazon, Kindle Paperwhite’s display is the most advanced e-reader display ever manufactured and much more advanced than any other e-reader’s display.

• Built-in light: Guides light toward the surface of the display for comfort reading.

• A faster processor: By 25 percent according to Amazom, which allows books to open faster.

• New Kindle Page Flip: Users can skim page-by-page, scan by chapter, or skip to the end of your book, all without losing their place.

• Share with Friends on Goodreads, although Goodreads on Kindle is only available when connected to Wi-Fi.

• Vocabulary Builder which compiles words you look up in the dictionary into an easy-to-access list. You can laters use these lists to quiz yourself with flashcards and instantly see words in context.

• Smart Lookup which integrates a full dictionary and Wikipedia so you can access definitions, characters, settings and more without leaving your page.

• In-line Footnotes: Users can just tap on the screen and read complete text of each footnote in-line without changing the page.

• Kindle Free Time: This is aimed at Children and lets users created personalised profiles for kids and give them access to titles from your collection of books. Children are rewarded with achievement badges that keep track of their personal reading accomplishments. A progress report keeps parents updated on total time spent reading.

• Cloud Collections: Organise your books in customised collections for easy reference, and Amazon’s Whispersync technology synchronises the collections across your Kindle devices.

The Kindle Paperwhite will deliver 8 weeks of battery life. In addition to GoodReads, the  Facebook and Twitter share options are also there. The e-reader also has parental Controls which allow parents to restrict access to the Kindle Store, Cloud Archive and the Experimental Web Browser, for their children.

Kaspersky backtracks on its statement, says it never accused Facebook of reading SMS

Kaspersky the internet security firm which revealed that Facebook is trying to snoop around and read your texts and confidential information, says it is not the source of the news. A mail was sent confirming the same after the report went viral on the internet.

The guys over at Indian Express received the mail sent from the PR team of Kaspersky which says that it is not the one who broke the news about Facebook reading text messages of its Android customers. The firm tries to say that it was only commenting on the technical aspect of the permission the social network seeks when users sign up for the application.

Only yesterday, we had reported that Kaspersky has released a report revealing that Facebook is taking access to its Android users’ text messages and calendars. When downloading the app, you need to give your consent to certain permissions such as access to your SMS so the social network can read your messages and identify the code.

This saves you from taking the trouble of entering the code by yourself. Another thing is about your calendars that gives Facebook direct access to the events in it so it can identify whether you are free to attend those events for which you have been invited on the website or not.

But we would still like to remind you what Kaspersky says, that check the app permissions before giving your consent to them.

Best is yet to come, says Facebook’s Zuckerberg

SAN FRANCISCO : The 10 years since the founding of Facebook have been an “amazing journey,” but the best is still to come, Mark Zuckerberg says. Zuckerberg, the founder and chief executive of the world’s biggest social network, reflected on the anniversary in a posting Tuesday on his own Facebook profile.
“Today is Facebook’s 10th anniversary. It’s been an amazing journey so far, and I’m so grateful to be a part of it,” the 29-year-old Zuckerberg wrote. “It’s rare to be able to touch so many people’s lives, and I try to remind myself to make the most of every day and have the biggest impact I can.” Zuckerberg said Facebook succeeded because “we just cared more about connecting the world than anyone else. And we still do today. That’s why I’m even more excited about the next 10 years than the last.”
 He said the first decade was “about bootstrapping this network. Now we have the resources to help people across the world solve even bigger and more important problems.”
Zuckerberg said he is often asked if he knew Facebook would become what it is today and he responds, “No way.” “I remember getting pizza with my friends one night in college shortly after opening Facebook. I told them I was excited to help connect our school community, but one day someone needed to connect the whole world,” he wrote. “I always thought this was important - giving people the power to share and stay connected, empowering people to build their own communities themselves. When I reflect on the last 10 years, one question I ask myself is: why were we the ones to build this? We were just students. We had way fewer resources than big companies. If they had focused on this problem, they could have done it.” Zuckerberg made similar comments in an interview Tuesday with NBC television.
“It’s so rare to have the opportunity to touch a billion people’s lives and I really think that the best is yet to come.” On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said he sees a different role for Facebook in the future. “Today, social networks are mostly about sharing moments. In the next decade, they’ll also help you answer questions and solve complex problems,” he wrote. The network, which has some 1.23 million users worldwide and has grown into one of the biggest technology firms, was planning a low-key celebration. “Just as we do every year, we will have an internal party on Friday afternoon,” Facebook spokeswoman Arielle Aryah told AFP in response to a query regarding the company’s birthday celebration plans.
Facebook broke ground late last year on an expansion to its campus in former Sun Microsystems digs in the Silicon Valley city of Menlo Park. The new West Campus was designed by respected architect Frank Gehry. A Pew Research Center survey released Monday suggests no slowing momentum for the network, even though more than half of US Facebook users said they are turned off by oversharing and didn’t like the fact that they showed up in pictures without giving permission.
According to the research firm eMarketer, Facebook has become the second-largest recipient of digital advertising spending behind Google, and is particularly strong in mobile ads. Ben Harper at the research firm Socialbakers said Facebook has gotten where it is because of its constant innovation. “It’s easy to forget that features such as timeline, graph search and business pages haven’t always been there for us to use,” Harper wrote in a blog post.
“For businesses, Facebook has become a platform for reaching and engaging with current and potential new customers,” he said. “Facebook advertising has powerful targeting options... For users, Facebook has changed the way we interact with friends, family and our favorite brands. We’re sure Facebook has many more innovations and surprises coming in the near future.”

As with any new CEO, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella will have a packed agenda that includes filling top management roles and re-examining strategy. The tech giant on Tuesday named Nadella to replace Steve Ballmer. He is only the third chief executive in Microsoft’s 38-year history. The longtime insider will be tasked with catching rivals in the mobile devices arena and offering more software and services over the Internet.

Here are some of the most pressing items on Nadella’s to-do list as he reshapes Microsoft into a “mobile-first, cloud-first” company:

Integrate Nokia’s mobile device business

Microsoft’s $7.3 billion acquisition will add roughly 30,000 employees to Microsoft’s existing 100,000 workers — barring some likely layoffs. Nokia, the largest maker of phones that run Microsoft’s Windows Phone software, was also believed to be working on a phone that uses Google’s Android operating system prior to the acquisition. It’s unclear whether Microsoft will cancel the effort in time for the industry conference where Nokia was expected to show off the phone, Mobile World Congress, which starts on 24 February.

Fix Windows and unite the company’s various operating systems

Windows 8 and the Windows 8.1 upgrade have not revived the PC market as expected. That’s mainly because keyboard- and mouse-users have found it difficult to navigate the touch-first “modern” interface which uses large tiles. Analysts expect Microsoft to merge its Windows Phone and Windows RT operating system for lightweight tablets into one system to appease software developers and consumers alike, while restoring some familiar navigation tools to the computer-based version of Windows. Look for announcements at the Mobile World Congress or Microsoft’s own developers’ conference, Build, which starts 2 April.

Set a hardware strategy

Microsoft’s Surface tablets have been losing money despite increased sales; the newly released Xbox One is expected to be unprofitable until game sales begin to make up for costly hardware; and Nokia’s phone shipments plunged in the latest quarter. Turning these units into healthy profit centers —or getting rid of them— will be one of the many decisions Nadella faces.

Pick a management team

Microsoft passed over many internal candidates in favor of Nadella, including former Skype head Tony Bates and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. How Nadella works with them will give an indication of the company’s direction going forward.

Work with the board, including Bill Gates

Nadella asked Microsoft’s founder to increase his involvement in the company’s products and technology, meaning Gates will relinquish the chairmanship to John Thompson. How Nadella balances his own vision with Gates’ could be a challenge. As well, investment fund ValueAct Capital is set to appoint its president, G. Mason Morfit, to Microsoft’s board at the company’s first quarterly meeting this year. While ValueAct is a booster of the very cloud-computing and enterprise software businesses that Nadella helped to build, the new CEO’s relationship with the board and its latest large investor will be important.