Micromax A116 Canvas HD review

Micromax A116 Canvas HD is the successor to the company's popular budget phablet (large screen phones that are considered to be a phone-tablet hybrid), the A110 Canvas 2. The company has bestowed the phone with an HD screen, has put a quad-core chip, under the hood, and has doubled the on-board RAM. The phone was announced in January, but made its debut around 10 days back, generating a great response among new and potential customers, clocking in 9000 unit sales in a day, in addition to generating a lot of buzz in general. So does the Canvas HD live up to the hype? We try to find out.

Build/ Design
On first look, the Canvas HD looks more like an enlarged version of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, unlike its predecessor, the Canvas 2, whose design resembled that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2/Galaxy SIII. However, despite sporting a 5-inch screen, the phone looks compact compared to the Canvas 2.

On closer inspection, you'll gather that the front of the phone is black in colour, while the back is white. Looking from the sides, it gives the impression that the phone bears both colours since the removable back cover doesn't just cover the back and extends to the sides. We didn't like the dual-colour design concept, but some might find it interesting.

The screen forms the largest part of the front and the bezel is, thankfully, much thinner than that of the Canvas 2. The three capacitive navigation buttons sit below the screen, while the earpiece (also black in colour), notification light, and the front facing camera, are located above the screen. To be honest, the front has a very plasticky feel to it, but then this phone costs Rs. 13,990, so you don't expect premium materials to be used. However, the screen gets smudged easily, even without our hands being sweaty.

The back of the phone, which features a removable back cover, has also been done in plastic, sports a glossy finish and is less prone to smudges. The 8-megapixel camera lens protrudes out a bit, similar to the HTC One X camera lens. The LED flash and a secondary microphone are located adjacent to the lens. There's Micromax branding and a speaker grill towards the bottom. The back cover hides the battery compartment, above which there are two SIM card slots and a slot for the microSD card.

At the right side, you can see a Power/screen lock key, which is also white in colour. This button is a little recessed and at times gets a bit hard to press. The volume rocker sits at the left side and is easy to press. At the top, you'll find the 3.5mm headset jack and a micro-USB port. There's just a microphone at the bottom edge.

Overall, we felt that Micromax could have used better quality materials but it would have to cut corners to reduce the price of the device, so it's understandable.

Display
The USP of the Canvas HD is indeed its HD screen. The phone's 5-inch HD IPS screen sports a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and a colour depth of 16.7 million. Thanks to the higher resolution, text, icons and images look much sharper compared to the Canvas 2 and the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Grand. There was no pixelation. However, we felt that the screen contrast was a little haywire, resulting in images appearing to be washed out.

Under sun visibility was good though the screen is very reflective. Thanks to the IPS panel that facilitates wider viewing angles, we found that the viewing angles were indeed wide, which essentially means that more than one person can view content playing on the screen properly, even from different angles. We also found the touch response of the screen to be good.

Software/ Interface
The Micromax Canvas HD runs Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean). Micromax has skinned some elements of the user interface, such as the app icons and the notification tray. The notification tray includes toggles for settings such as Wi-Fi, Brightness, Rotation, Bluetooth, GPS, Data, Screen timeouts and profiles (for alerts and other notifications). There's also a SIM selection toggle. Similar to most other Android devices, there are five customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets.

The notification tray also features a settings shortcut and a clear all notifications button, along with expandable notifications (expanded with the two finger pull gesture). Android 4.1 Jelly Bean also brings in Google Now, which needs to be initialised for the first time, before use.

For the uninitiated, Google Now is a voice based information assistant and an extension of Google search. You can ask questions and the tool returns answers or search results. It uses 'cards' which are essentially small boxes that offer different sets of information ranging from weather forecast, directions, traffic information, scores, appointments, and currency conversion, among others. Google Now collects information based on the user's behaviour, location, and even e-mail, to offer information automatically.

The three capacitive buttons, Home, Menu and Back help in navigating through the phone, with the Home button also doubling up as an app switcher on long press.

Micromax has also included some of its own apps including content stores, M! Store and M! Live, and services store, M! Zone, in addition to its messaging app, HookUp, and friends locator app, M! Buddy and a few 'try and buy' games (Fruit Devil, Cricket Fever). The handset also offers FM Radio and FM radio recording.

Micromax has also modified the Messages app, adding a Smileys input option next to the text entry prompt, and a button for attaching multimedia, contacts and audio clips, among others, with it. Micromax has also added a file manager app, a NoteBook app, a ToDo app, in addition to a universal search app, and a video player app. It has also replaced the stock camera app with a different one. The company has also included a Wireless Input Device app, letting users configure a Bluetooth-based input device with the phone.

Micromax has also modified the Phone Dialler app giving the option of calling from any one of the SIMs. The dialler resembles the iOS dialler in terms of the colour scheme.

Camera
The phone features an 8-megapixel autofocus shooter that takes decent images in daylight. However, we found the photos taken through the phone a bit overexposed, and the white-balance in the automatic mode was not optimal. This results in images appearing to be a bit whiter, and colours looking a little dull.  Indoor shots were above average. We also found that the camera took some time to focus. The camera takes good quality videos depending on the ambient light. However, it saves video clips in .3GP file format, which is an older file format.

As we mentioned before, Micromax has put its own camera app. The app leaves out the Panorama mode, but offers a burst mode, letting users click up to 99 shots at once. We also noticed that there is minor gap between two consecutive camera shots in the continuous shot mode. The phone offers three basic modes - Face Beauty, HDR and Photo. The photo mode allows users to modify settings like Exposure, colour effect, ISO and white balance, among others. There's a self timer of up to 10 seconds as well.

The phone also features a VGA front camera, which takes average pictures, and can be used for video conferencing. We wish the phone had a dedicated camera button to help click a quick picture.

Performance
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is powered by a 1.2GHz MediaTek MT6589 quad-core processor with 1GB RAM onboard, and PowerVR SGX544MP chip for processing graphics. There is 4GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card.

With Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the overall experience of navigation through the interface was impressive, thanks to Project Butter and the phone's quad-core processor. We did not experience any lag while launching apps, playing games, scrolling web pages or switching between apps. It is safe to say that performance wise, the Canvas HD trumps other phones in this price range. Even the more expensive Galaxy Grand loses out to the Canvas HD in terms of benchmarks, but end users are unlikely to note significant performance difference between the two, unless they are playing CPU-hungry games (Hint: The Canvas HD performs better).

We were able to play full-HD clips, with the phone supporting formats like .AVI, natively. The speaker on the phone delivers average quality sound at high volume levels, but there's some muffle when the phone lies on its back, as the speaker grill is located on the back. The headphones that come with the phone offer average quality sound output. Call quality was good, during our testing process.

The phone comes with a 2,000mAh battery, and based on our experience, it will just about last you a full day. We charged the phone in the afternoon (at around 2pm), and with medium to heavy usage, including 1-1.5 hours of phone calls, two e-mail accounts with push notifications, screen at maximum brightness, playing some music and video clips, Twitter notifications and WhatsApp chats, the phone lasted 8-9 hours. It's also worth pointing out that we had turned off Wi-Fi and auto-brightness, and the phone was hooked to a 3G network. Altering these settings might help in running the phone for a longer duration, depending on your usage pattern.

Verdict
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is a worthy upgrade to the A110. A 5-inch screen phone, with a quad-core processor, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, at a price point of Rs 13,990 is indeed a value for money proposition.

Other phones in the same range include the Karbonn S1 Titanium, which also has a quad-core processor, and sports a 4.5-inch qHD (960x540) multi-touch capacitive touch display and runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The phone's been priced at Rs 10,990 and pre-bookings  have already started. The XOLO A1000 is another phone to look out. But we'd wait until we've had a chance to run these phones through our tests before recommending.

The Samsung Galaxy Grand is another budget phablet, if you don't mind spending Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 extra for a phone which has an inferior screen and battery life compared to the Canvas HD, but a better camera and bears the Samsung brand name.

Overall, the Micromax A116 Canvas HD seems to the best Android budget phablet we've come across so far, and we have no qualms in recommending it.

 

Price: Rs. 13,990

Pros

• Good screen
• Decent performance
• Excellent value for money

Cons

• Plasticky feel
• Power button is recessed
• Sub-par camera

Ratings (Out of 5)

• Design: 3
• Display: 4
• Performance: 4
• Software: 3.5
• Battery Life: 3.5
• Value for Money: 4.5
• Camera: 3
• Overall: 3.5

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Today`s Quotes

“You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.”

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India Inc wants participative, adaptable, global leaders, says experts

A good leadership style is to be inclusive and caring in a diverse culture with people from various backgrounds

The success or failure of any organisation depends largely on its leaders. Their style of handling complex business situations, people and managing the whole show can make the critical difference between losing and winning in the marketplace. With the social complexities and cultural diversity of India, a combination of leadership styles is essential to manage talent. However, which leadership style is most effective in the Indian context, remains a question for debate.
In a poll conducted by TimesJobs.com on leadership styles, 69% of employees feel that participative or democratic style of leadership works best in the Indian scenario. Whereas, 21% are of the opinion that an engaging style does the trick. Another 10% of voters believe that an autocratic style is the most suitable leadership style.
According to Kamal Karanth, MD, Kelly Services, the most effective leadership style in India is “the leader’s ability to adapt to various styles as per need” mostly guided by the situational leadership model. “The ability to lead change is a critical strength for an Indian leader. Another component of good leadership style in India is being inclusive and caring, in a diverse cultural country like ours where people from various financial, religious, socio – economic and demographic backgrounds come and work together leader should be able to handle the diverse functioning styles of the employees,” he added.
Sharing a similar perspective, Ashish Arora, Founder & MD, HR Anexi, said, “Indian leaders should have an adaptable, improvisational style of leadership. Given the country’s obvious challenges in infrastructure, regulations and labour relations, Indian CEOs have grown to rely on their judgment to circumvent recurrent hurdles and still deliver growth. Ironically, this has made their businesses even more nimble and stable in comparison to their western counterparts.”
Ichiro Iino, Managing Director, Hitachi India, supports a participative leadership style, where leaders inculcate team spirit and culture. “In this manner, employees feel more engaged and decisions can be implemented easily. With emotionally hooked team members, retention of talent is likely to be high”, he added.
Adding a different perspective to the debate, Prithvi Shergill, Chief Human Resources Officer, HCL Technologies Ltd commented, “In a global world today, countries and companies need to co-exist and are impacted by each other given the interdependence on global economic conditions.  The need of the hour is ‘global leaders’ rather than ‘geography specific leaders’ who can leverage these global macroeconomic dynamics. A Global Leader is one whose key competencies lie in the areas of – Vision, Risk Taking, Influence and Creativity.”

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15 healthy reasons to eat mangoes

15 healthy reasons to eat mangoes

Mango is called the king of fruits not just for its taste and super flashy yellow colour, but also for the array of health benefits it offers.

We give you 15 healthy reasons why you should stock up on mangoes this summer.

Fights cancer
Antioxidants like quercetin, isoquercitrin, astragalin, fisetin, gallic acid and methylgallat present in mango protect the body against colon, breast, leukemia and prostate cancers.

Keeps cholesterol in check
Mango has high level of vitamin C, pectin and fibres that help to lower serum cholesterol levels.

Skin cleanser
Mangoes help you unclog your pores and add freshness to the face. Mangoes are applicable to any skin type.

Alkalises the body
According to natural health school.com, mango is rich in tartaric acid, malic acid and traces of citric acid that primarily help in maintaining the alkali reserve of the body.

Weight loss
Mango has a lot of vitamins and nutrients that help the body feel fuller. Also, the fibrous fruit boosts the digestive function of the body by burning additional calories, helping in weight loss.

Regulates diabetes
Not only the fruit but the leaves of mangoes are healthy too. For people suffering from diabetes, just boil 5-6 mango leaves in a vessel, soak it through night and drink the filtered decoction in the morning. This is helps in regulating your insulin levels.

Mango has a low glycemic index (41-60) so going a little overboard will not increase your sugar levels.

Aphrodisiac
Mango has aphrodisiac qualities and is also called the 'love fruit'. Mangoes increase the virility in men.

Eye care
Did you know that mango is rich in vitamin A. One cup of sliced mangoes equals 25% intake of your daily need of vitamin A. Mangoes help in promoting good eye sight, fights dry eyes and also prevent night blindness.

Helps in digestion
Mango contains enzymes that help in breaking down protein. The fibrous nature of mango helps in digestion and elimination.

Heat stroke
When the sun is bogging you down this summer, just chop of a mango in a juicer; add a little water and a tbsp of sugar free or honey. This juice will instantly cool you down and prevent heat stroke.

Strengthens your immune
The deadly combination of vitamin C, vitamin A and 25 different kinds of carotenoids keep your immune system healthy.

Nutrition chart
According to care2.com, one cup (225 gms contain) contains the following percentages that apply to daily value.
105 calories
76 percent vitamin C (antioxidant and immune booster)
25 percent vitamin A (antioxidant and vision)
11 percent vitamin B6 plus other B vitamins (hormone production in brain and heart disease prevention)
9 percent healthy probiotic fibre
9 percent copper (copper is a co-factor for many vital enzymes plus production of red blood cells)
7 percent potassium (to balance out our high sodium intake)
4 percent magnesium

Body scrub
Make a paste of mashed mango, honey and milk and use as a body scrub, you will feel that your skin is tender and smooth.

Aids concentration and memory
Feed mangoes to children who find it difficult to concentrate on studies. The glutamine acid found in mangoes help in keeping cells alive and boosting memory.

High iron for women
Mango is rich in iron, hence it is a great natural solution for people suffering from anemia. Menopausal women can indulge in mangoes as this will increase their iron levels and calcium at the same time.

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Next version of Aakash tablet to cost Rs 2,500: Datawind

Datawind said it is ready to provide the next version of the device at a tentative price of Rs 2,500 apiece.

NEW DELHI: After completing supply of 1 lakh units of Aakash tablets to IIT Bombay for Rs 2,263 apiece, Datawind said it is ready to provide the next version of the device at a tentative price of Rs 2,500 apiece.

"As per my information, the committee on Aakash tablets is looking to higher version of the device at Rs 2,500 a piece and we are ready to match the price on order for every 10 lakh units," Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli told reporters here.

When queried about alleged delays in supply of Aakash tablets under the previous tender, he said Datawind has supplied all tablets more than a month in advance.

"The deadline to finish supplies of Aakash tablet is around June 6 under the tender clause. We have done it by May 1 so we have complied with the norms," he said.

Datawind has recommended higher specifications for the next version of Aakash tablets which will include a SIM slot and enable users to make calls.

Tuli welcomed the Preferential Market Access policy norms which in general has been opposed by foreign companies. The policy mandates government to procure electronic products, including tablet PCs, which should have at least 30 per cent components made locally.

"We have set up an LCD touchscreen unit in Amritsar. Therefore, Datawind will comply to the norms of 30 per cent value addition in the product from India. I would like government to strictly implement it. It is good for the country and will encourage electronics manufacturing in the country," Tuli said.

He said that other companies will have to set up LCD units in India to meet PMA conditions.

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Hotmail is dead as Outlook.com takes over

Microsoft's Hotmail was phased out on Friday, as the US tech giant completed a rebranding to Outlook.com.

SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft's Hotmail, the free webmail service used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, was phased out on Friday, as the US tech giant completed a rebranding to Outlook.com.

"We're excited to announce that we've completed upgrading all Hotmail customers to Outlook.com," Microsoft's Dick Craddock said in a blog post late Thursday.

"Coupled with the growing organic excitement for Outlook.com, this has pushed us to over 400 million active Outlook.com accounts."

The transition began in February, when Microsoft began a test of moving users to the new Outlook.com services.

"Hotmail was still one of the most widely used services, with over 300 million active accounts," Craddock said.

"This made the magnitude of the process incredible, maybe even unprecedented. This meant communicating with hundreds of millions of people, upgrading all their mailboxes -- equaling more than 150 million gigabytes of data -- and making sure that every person's mail, calendar, contacts, folders and personal preferences were preserved in the upgrade."

Outlook.com addresses will be better synched to other Microsoft services, such as its Bing search engine and Skydrive, the cloud storage system.

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Meet smartphone, your new doctor

By hooking a variety of gadgets onto a smartphone you could almost get a complete physical check-up.

WASHINGTON: It's not a Star Trek tricorder, but by hooking a variety of gadgets onto a smartphone you could almost get a complete physical check-up -- without the paper gown or even a visit to the doctor's office.

Blood pressure? Just plug the arm cuff into the phone for a quick reading.

Heart okay? Put your fingers in the right spot, and the squiggly rhythm of an EKG appears on the phone's screen.

Plug in a few more devices and you could have photos of your eardrum (Look, no infection!) and the back of your eye, listen to your heartbeat, chart your lung function, even get a sonogram.

If this sounds like a little too much DIY medical care, well, the idea isn't to self-diagnose with Dr iPhone. But companies are rapidly developing miniature medical devices that tap the power of the ubiquitous smartphone in hopes of changing how people monitor their own health.

"We wanted to make sure they have all the right tools available in their pocket" is how Joseph Flaherty of AgaMatrix describes his company's tiny glucose monitor. Diabetics can plug the iBGStar into the bottom of an iPhone and check blood sugar on the go without carrying an extra device.

This mobile medicine also might help doctors care for patients in new ways. In March, prominent San Diego cardiologist Eric Topol tweeted "no emergency landing req'd" when he used his smartphone EKG to diagnose a distressing but not immediately dangerous irregular heartbeat in a fellow airplane passenger at 30,000 feet.

And the University of California, San Francisco, hopes to enroll a staggering 1 million people in its Health eHeart Study to see whether using mobile technology, including smartphone tracking of people's heart rate and blood pressure, could help treat and prevent cardiovascular disease.

The question: Do smartphone devices really work well enough for the average patient and primary care doctor to dive in, or are early adopters just going for the cool factor? Many of the tools cost $100 to $200, there's little public sales information yet, and it's not clear how insurers will handle the fledgling trend.

"Technology sometimes evolves faster than we're ready for it," cautioned Dr Glen Stream of the American Academy of Family Physicians. "We're recognising more and more that not all care needs to be delivered face to face," but only if people measure the right things and have a relationship with a doctor to help make good use of the findings, he stressed.

Addressing a recent TEDMED conference in Washington, Dr Susan Desmond-Hellmann, UCSF's chancellor, put the challenge this way: "How does mobile monitoring become something more than a toy, or something interesting? How does it connect to how I'm cared for by my caregiver?"

About 300 doctors, health policy wonks and others attending that high-tech meeting received what was dubbed a "smartphone physical" from medical students using 10 of the latest devices. The Food and Drug Administration has approved a number of the gadgets for sale; others are experimental prototypes gathered for the demonstration by Nurture by Steelcase and the doctor website Medgadget.

"It's going to be our generation that adopts most of these," noted Shiv Gaglani, a Johns Hopkins medical student who helped organise the project.

The FDA cites industry estimates that 500 million smartphone users worldwide will use some type of health app by 2015. Today's apps mostly are educational tools, digital health diaries or reminders and fitness sensors. The new trend is toward more sophisticated medical apps, some that work with plug-in devices, that provide information a doctor might find useful.

Some of the devices sell by prescription or on drugstore shelves, while others like the diabetes monitor and blood pressure cuff have entered a new venue for medicine - the Apple store.

Simplicity is part of the idea. Take the AliveCor Heart Monitor. Snap it on like a smartphone case, place fingers on the sensors - no sticky wires on the chest - and you've got an EKG recording in 30 seconds. The FDA approved sale of the $199 device in December for doctors to use in exams or to prescribe for patients to use on themselves.

It doesn't measure as much as a full-scale EKG, and patients must email the recording to a doctor for analysis. But heart patients frequently experience palpitations that have ended by the time they reach a cardiologist -- and emailing an on-the-spot EKG reading might help the doctor figure out what happened, said AliveCor co-founder Dr Dave Albert.

"This is a brand-new technology. We're trying to understand how people will use it," said Albert, whose company also is seeking FDA permission to sell the device over the counter.

Welch Allyn's iExaminer taps the smartphone's camera to photograph deep inside the eye -- the orange view of the retina filling the phone's screen.

Similarly, CellScope is developing an otoscope - that magnifier doctors use to peer into the ear - that can snap a photo of the eardrum. It's not for sale yet, but might parents one day email that kind of picture to the pediatrician before deciding whether Johnny needs an office visit?

And University of Washington researchers are testing a way to measure lung function in people with asthma or emphysema as they blow onto the phone and it captures the sound. Today, those measurements require blowing into special machines.

Insurers are studying what smartphone technology to pay for. For example, health care giant Kaiser Permanente is about to begin a project in Georgia to sell the iBGStar alongside other diabetes monitors in its on-site pharmacies. The project will determine whether patients like the smartphone monitor, if it improves care - and if so, whether the readings should beam into patients' electronic health records, in Georgia and in other Kaiser regions.

But ultimately these devices may have a bigger role in developing countries, where full-size medical equipment is in short supply but smartphones are becoming common. Even in rural parts of the US it can take hours to drive to a specialist, while a primary care physician might quickly email that specialist a photo of, say, a diseased retina first to see whether the trip's really necessary.

"These tools make diagnosis at a distance much easier," said Dr Nicholas Genes, an emergency medicine professor at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who helped with TEDMED's smartphone physical.

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10 top IT skills for 2013 revealed

CyberCoders has released new data about the skills most in demand for the highest paying technology jobs this year.

CALIFORNIA: Recruiting firm CyberCoders has released new data about the skills most in demand for the highest paying technology jobs this year. The company analysed over 10,000 tech companies and their hiring requirements to compile the list of the hottest skills in the tech space.

Data from CyberCoders reveals that candidates who have experience with iOS development, cloud computing programming and front-end development skills are most in demand in today's tech career landscape.

The top 10 tech skills for 2013, as per CyberCoders are listed below:

1. Mobile development (iOS, Android); 2. Cloud computing (AWS, Azure); 3. Front end development (HTML5, CSS3, Javascript); 4. UX/UI design; 5. Big Data (Hadoop, MongoDB, NoSQL); 6. C#; 7. Ruby on rails; 8. Java; 9. PHP; and 10. Linux

"A common theme among these technology skills is the need for open source, mobile, cloud or big data technologies, like iOS, Azure and Hadoop," said Matt Miller, CTO of CyberCoders.

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Mumbai Indians face rampaging Chennai Super Kings at Wankhede

Earlier in the tournament, MI pipped CSK at fortress Chepauk by nine runs. MI have historically held sway over the southern powerhouse at home.

MUMBAI: Hosts Mumbai Indians, lying fourth on the points table, with 12 points, take on two-time champions and table-toppers Chennai Super Kings (18 points), in a potentially mouth-watering encounter, at the Wankhede Stadium, in the Indian T20 league, on Sunday.


While a 4 pm start, in peak summer, will make it steamy for the players, the contest itself is expected to be spicy, as all matches between these two teams always are.

The corresponding fixture last year (May 6) is a case in point. MI, thanks to the pyrotechnics of Dwayne Smith, chased down CSK's 173 for 8, off the last ball.

Earlier in the tournament, MI pipped CSK at fortress Chepauk by nine runs. MI have historically held sway over the southern powerhouse at home.

At the Wankhede, on true surfaces, they enjoy a 3-0 record and MS Dhoni, who hasn't enjoyed his time here, while leading India, especially this season, will hope that fortunes change.

They won't if Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik, bulwarks of the MI middle-order, hang around. Rohit has been a transformed player since donning the captain's mantle and with 375 runs from 10 matches (Avg 53.57, SR 150), he is recreating the form that he displayed for Deccan Chargers, in 2009.

Karthik too has been in fine touch (331 runs, Avg 33.10, SR 139.66) and while others have posted bigger scores, one can't think of better quality knocks than the 86 he carved against Delhi Daredevils.

Too much though has depended on these two and Smith. Sachin Tendulkar, for all his greatness, has been a passenger.

One wonders how long his pride will allow him to continue now that regular skipper Ricky Ponting has already made a statement by sitting out.

With the ball, a lot will rest on the shoulders of Mitchell Johnson. If his swing and pace can dislodge the ageless and in-form Mike Hussey (485 runs @60.62, SR 132.15) early, MI can hope to make it 4-0 at the Big W. Johnson though would need better support from Lasith Malinga, who has looked overweight and off colour.

It's not all about Hussey with CSK though. Suresh Raina has got his touch back too as his hundred against Kings XI showed.

MS Dhoni is enjoying the challenges of batting higher up and has bullied even good attacks, scoring 300 runs @ 42.85, SR 171.42. Dwayne Bravo's bowling, especially at the death, has been potent.

CSK have also stolen a march over other franchises in the way they have backed young talent. Players like Mohit Sharma and Chris Morris have been thrown at the deep end and have succeeded.

MI have historically been poor at handling youngsters. Just ask Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Will a young captain, surrounded by wise, old heads, be allowed to change that trend?

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Shah Rukh is 'sorry' for dressing-room controversy

Shah Rukh Khan entered his team's dressing room during the innings break.

KOLKATA: Kolkata Knight Riders' emphatic eight-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens on Friday evening was marred by two controversies — one off the field and the other on it.


The principal protagonist in the off-the-field incident was KKR's principal owner Shah Rukh Khan, who entered his team's dressing room during the innings break in a clear breach of protocol. He was promptly asked to leave and a red-faced Shah Rukh had to beat a hasty retreat.

Asked about the incident during a midnight media interaction held at the the official team hotel, Shah Rukh chose to play it down.

"It's my face...people stop me from going to lot of places in stadiums nowadays. I just wanted to tell Gambhir 'well done'. I am sorry, it's my mistake. I forget the rules sometimes. I will try not to do it again, so that I'm not banned from here (Eden)," he added on apologetic note.

The Bollywood megastar had got into trouble last season at the Wankhede Stadium for threatening a security guard who had stopped his kids and their friends from entering the playing arena after KKR's match against Mumbai Indians. The Mumbai Cricket Association banned him for five years for his indiscretion.

Reminded about that incident ahead of KKR's away match against Mumbai Indians at the same venue on Tuesday, Shah Rukh said: "In retrospect, I should not have behaved like that. On the other hand, it's not something that I really think about. It's quite cool."

Asked what his plans were for the May 7 match, Shah Rukh said, "I don't want to sound politically incorrect but what will they do if I enter? Shoot me?"

In a lighter vein he added that he might resort to wearing a mask in order to get into the Wankhede Stadium. "I don't know...otherwise it has to be the masks, I'll have to wear them with a false moustache and stuff like that. But I am not going to take any chances. I will wait outside the Wankhede and cheer for my boys."

The on-field incident took place in the fourth over of the KKR innings bowled by Shane Watson. The Aussie all-rounder fielded the ball off his own bowling and threatened to throw down the stumps at the striker's end with Manvinder Bisla out of his crease.

Bisla cheekily urged Watson to go ahead and throw the ball instead of just threatening to do so. Words were exchanged between the two players, prompting rival skippers Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid to get involved. Umpire Asad Rauf and Royals' Ajinkya Rahane played peacemakers as the storm in the proverbial tea cup blew over.

Later, Gambhir sought to clear the air saying he was not disrespectful Dravid during the incident. "Guys, u have got it all wrong. No harsh words exchanged between me n Rahul bhai. He was n will always be a respected teammate. No fuss plz," he wrote on his twitter page.

Gambhir actually ridiculed the way the incident was hyped. "Guess we are always obsessed wid some drama or spice. Sorry none existed between me and rahul. Always respect him," read his second tweet.

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Warren Buffett Joins Twitter; 1000 Followers Per Minute

Bangalore: 82 year old billionaire, Warren Buffett, reportedly joined Twitter, and within a span of 45 minutes he picked up more than 45,000 followers. The numbers kept pouring in, and within 5 hours he already has 174,633 followers, reports Forbes.

Twitter soon verified Buffets's account, and people around the globe are excited to see him on twitter, even Bill Gates too is happy to see him on social networking site, and has welcomed him to twitter with his tweets. Other billionaires like Donald Trump and Mark Cuban, are also in his list of friends. Buffet's initial tweet "Warren is in the house" had a total response of 25,399 re-tweets.

Warren Buffett, well known for sharing his knowledge on business world and economy, would allow people to gain more insights on his views on them through twitter. However, the third-richest man in the world, having a current net worth of more than $57 billion, per Forbes estimation, could not be immediately reached for his comments.

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Why you probably shouldn't answer that important email while flying

Air passengers should avoid making important decisions whilst flying at high altitude, a leading British aerospace medicine expert has said.According to Professor David Gradwell from Kings College, travelling by plane can make it more difficult to think as change in air pressure means brain has less oxygen that diminishes performance.
Revealing a series of "don'ts" for would-be travellers, he said that aircraft cabins are pressurised but only to a level equivalent to that on top of a 6,000 to 8,000 feet mountain where the air is thinner and less oxygen reaches the brain.
In case technology improves to make Internet access more popular while flying, "it may not be the best place to answer that important email," he advised.
He added passengers should not fly east if they want to avoid jet lag, 'The Independent' reported.
Gradwell also advised passengers not to go indoors on arrival but get out in the daylight - as it is the quickest way to adjust your body clock.
He warned against sitting still for the entire flight, or rejecting the water offered by the flight attendants, as moving your legs and feet and staying well hydrated are the best defence against deep vein thrombosis, a hazard of long haul flying.

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Google+ hangouts get Remote Desktop option, troubleshoot your friend's computer as you video chat

Google has added a remote desktop feature to Google+ hangouts.

This essentially means that users will be able to remotely access the computer of their Google+ contacts for the purpose of troubleshooting it, and will be able to video chat with them throughout the process.

To access the feature, you'll need to initiate a new hangout, select 'View more apps' from within the hangout, click on 'Add apps' and select Remote Desktop to download it. Following the installation of the app, you can simply invite the contact whose computer you want to troubleshoot and request for access. After the other user grants you permission, you'll be able be access the user's computer till he/ she ends the session.

Google's Daniel Caiafa informed via a Google+ post that the service is powered by the technology behind Chrome Remote Desktop.

While Google+ hangout already allowed Screensharing for virtual meetings, Remote Desktop will allow Google to compete with services like LogMeIn and GoToMyPC that allow remote desktop access for troubleshooting. Tech support executives also use these services to assist their customers. With a large number of users using Gmail, it will make more sense for them to use Google+ Hangouts, a service closely integrated with other Google products. Perhaps Google will be able to claim more new Google+ users after starting  this service.
 
Just a few days back, Google had announced the integration of App Activities into its Web search, taking Google+ integration a step forward. This essentially meant that Google search will now include results related to apps or services that offer logins via Google+. For instance, if a user searches for SoundCloud, the results listings page will display popular and aggregate user activity on the right side of search results, showing total number of Google+ users signed-in on SoundCloud and popular sound clips among them in order of the number of users listening to them.

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New Galaxy S4 ad trashes Apple: iPhone is so old

Having gotten over its tame international launch of the S4, Samsung's American arm resumes its denigration of Apple, suggesting only old folks own an iPhone.

Oh, Dad. You're so dumb.

You thought it might be all over?
You thought that Samsung had tired of suggesting Apple was a fading brand for geriatrics?
You may also have thought that the world runs on Cabernet and common sense.
Yes, the Galaxy S4 was launched on a rocket of the beige and the tasteless. But those were just the corporate folks doing their thing.
Now, the American arm of Samsung has returned to its own style. This involves squishing Apple till it's cider.
Here we are at a high school graduation pool party presented by the latest Samsung ad.
The cooler people all have the new Galaxy S4. The slightly less cool people all have iPhones.
The slightly less cool people might loosely be described as parents. (I say "loosely," because parenting just isn't what it used to be, is it?)
As the party rolls on and the soft drinks flow, the iPhone-owning parents begin to realize just how retrograde they are.

These snotty kids can answer their phones by merely waving at them.
They can kiss their phones together to transmit data to each other, too. It's as if the tactile love that was so prevalent in the '60s has now been transposed to the gadgets of the '10s.
"So some smartphones are smarter than other smartphones?" muses one graybeard, who looks like he's been addled by too much Cointreau and lawyering.
Meanwhile, the Beverly Hills 902013s continue to humiliate the olds with their technical wizardry.
Yes, the Galaxy S4 even works as your TV remote, you dye-haired daddy doddering toward dotage.
This tweaking of the Apple cheek has been going on for a while now, and it's becoming enjoyably brutal.
The positioning of Apple as a faded dame might remind some of Mac vs. PC, when the pitiful blobbery of Microsoft was exposed by Apple for all to see and laugh at.
Shoe, meet other foot.

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Apple fail should be a lesson for Microsoft

By market-acceptance standards, failures of Apple hardware products are rare. But when the potential for weak demand is evident, it's pretty good at fixing the problem. That's a lesson for Microsoft.

The iPad Mini made Apple's thicker, heavier Retina iPad easy to forget. Can Microsoft act fast with Suface?

Apple is good at addressing design oversights. Will Microsoft be as adept?
The Retina iPad, for example, violated Apple's design creed: products should get thinner and lighter -- aka, cooler. Not thicker and heavier.
But Apple fixed this quickly (six month later) with the iPad Mini trifecta: thinner, lighter, cheaper. And the iPad, reinvented as the Mini, has been a runaway success.
Now that Microsoft is in the business of making tablets, can it act fast when it commits product-design sins?
Surface is not a success -- yet. The Surface Pro is too big and heavy (and expensive), according to IDC and plenty of other observers. (It is a tablet, after all, despite Microsoft's valiant attempt to categorize it as a PC).
And the RT model is hampered by performance and an unpopular operating system, and it's out of sync -- like the Pro -- with the market shift to smaller tablets.

NPD DisplaySearch told CNET this week that Microsoft will bring out a 7.5-inch tablet that sources say may be $400, or possibly cheaper. But that tablet will happen later, not sooner, according to DisplaySearch.
That's a problem, because both the RT and Pro, I think, are going to languish in the coming months. And I have a feeling that products like Acer's leaked $380 Iconia 8-inch tablet will not fill the void.
And let's not forget Android. I'm guessing that vendors like Asus and Hewlett-Packard are going to look increasingly to Android for cool, inexpensive designs.
Microsoft appears to be serious about doing the Apple thing -- where it designs both the software and hardware -- and wants to make Windows 8 tablets a success. But will it be able to emulate Apple's successful hardware formula? A quick (very quick) refresh would be in order.
The clock is ticking.

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Today`s Quotes

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

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Gayle would not like to bowl at himself!

GAYLE'S GIFT: Chris Gayle presenting his West Indies T20 jersey to Rohan Pate for display in the 'Blades of Glory' museum. Photo: Vivek Bendre

TOPICS

Chris Gayle, who donated his West Indies T20 jersey to the ‘Blades of Glory’ cricket museum here on Friday, promised to hand over the bat with which he hit the record score after the IPL concluded this year “I need the bat for the remaining games,” said the RCB opener, who has scored 505 runs in 11 games.

Pune Warriors India, at the receiving end when Gayle smashed an unbeaten 175, escaped further mauling on Thursday when he walked back after scoring only 21.

Not many bowlers will want to face the left-handed opener in a T20 game.

“In those kind of situation, I sure don’t want to be a bowler, especially when a batsman is doing all those things. The wicket was really good (at Chinnaswamy stadium). I was actually looking at a team total of 180 but I ended up getting 175.

“These things happen and every batsman has his day. That day was mine and I capitalised on it, for which I am very happy. Hopefully, in future I can do a bit more.

“There is a lot of talent here, it will be difficult to make the team.

“With so many talented players here, I am not needed,” the West Indian replied to a hypothetical question about the possibility of representing India.

“They have won the T20 World Cup, were the No.1 team and also 60-overs World Cup champion once.

“India plays good cricket as well. If I get a chance, would definitely like to play. There is nothing I can do at this point of time, maybe after representing the West Indies”.

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IT employment is expected to grow 3 times over the next 3 years: Infopark

Despite the slow growth in information technology recruitment in the country, the Infopark in Kochi has projected a healthy growth in recruitment over the next few years. IT employment is expected to grow three times over the next three years at the Infopark.

Since its inception in 2004, Infopark has created over 3.4 million square feet of space and has provided employment to nearly 18,500 IT professionals. Around 134 IT companies have taken space in the park.
TCS and Cognizant are constructing their own campuses of 1.5 million square feet each in the Infopark. Both the companies are expected to add 12,000 people each in the next three years.
In 2012-13, the Infopark reported an export revenue of Rs 1,350 crore, representing a 23 % growth over the previous year. The facilities of TCS and Cognizant are expected to give a boost to the export revenue from the park.
Infopark CEO Gigo Joseph said that the rentals in Infopark are lower by almost 30 % as compared to other South Indian cities. The attrition is as low as 5 %. He said that the employees in the park will see a three-fold rise in the next 3 years.

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Protect your skin from getting tanned

Protect your skin from getting tanned

When you read about protecting your skin from the sun, you may feel that you have heard it all before.

The worst thing is, Ultraviolet rays of the sun are not visible and cannot be felt. The best way to protect your skin is to seek shade when the harmful Ultraviolet rays are at their peak. And if you are heading outdoors, you must wear protective clothing, a broad-brimmed hat and sunglasses. Here are a few simple points you need to keep in mind.

Plan your day well in advance. The best thing you can do for your skin is to avoid the sun from 10.30 am to 3.30 pm.

It is best to wear loose-fitting clothes that cover as much skin as possible. Check the kind of clothes you are wearing — closely woven fabrics that cast a dense shadow when held up to light are perfect to protect you from the harsh glares of the sun.

Protect your eyes. Wear sunglasses that wrap around the sides of the face so that Ultraviolet rays don't reach your eyes.

If your skin burns easily, the best way to protect it is to use sunscreen. A generous application of a broad spectrum SPF 30+ sunscreen would do. Reapply it every two hours.

Always apply sunscreen before stepping out. Prepare a mixture of yogurt and lemon juice and apply it daily on your skin before taking a bath.

Rubbing peeled potato skin over the affected area helps reduce tan.

Applying cucumber on the affected area is also good.

Prepare a paste of sandalwood powder, coconut and almond oil, and apply it on your skin for half an hour.

Applying Aloe Vera gel daily helps protect your skin from tanning.

Papaya is a natural skin-lightening agent. Rub papaya pulp on tanned skin.

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Microsoft goes cheap to win smartphone market share

Microsoft-powered phones now have 3.2% of the US smartphone market, compared to 39% for Apple and 52% for Google's Android system.

SEATTLE: Microsoft's phone chief hates to call the new Nokia Lumia 521 cheap, but the lower-priced smartphone launching in the United States is the company's boldest move yet to win mass market share from leaders Apple and Samsung.

The world's largest software company has so far focused on putting its Windows Phone software into expensive, high-end devices - chiefly from Nokia and HTC.

But the new model will go on sale at Walmart later this month at an unsubsidised price under $150, relatively cheap for a new phone running up-to-date software without a long-term contract.

"There is an opportunity for us to offer a very high quality device in the mainstream," said Terry Myerson, head of the Windows Phone unit, at Microsoft's campus near Seattle last week. "That's where we've made progress in the last couple of months and it's a strategy we'll continue to explore in the United States."

The Nokia Lumia 521 went on sale on the Home Shopping Network (HSN) last week, where it has already sold out. The 4G phone, sold overseas as the Nokia 520, is essentially a mid-range phone with some high-end features, such as 4-inch touch screen, five megapixel camera and high-definition video display.

Next week the phone will go on sale at less than $150 at Walmart, along with T-Mobile US' $30 per month unlimited data and text plan, which works out much cheaper over the long run than heavily subsidised iPhones and upscale Android devices that generally come with pricy long-term contracts.

The early popularity of the Lumia 521 on HSN is a minor boost for Microsoft, whose mobile plans have stuttered and stumbled since Apple's iPhone destroyed its early dominance in the smartphone market in 2007.

After completely redesigning its software, Microsoft-powered phones now have 3.2% of the US smartphone market, compared to 39% for Apple and 52% for Google's Android system, according to comScore.

Nokia, which now only makes smartphones running Windows, sold 5.6 million of its Lumia handsets in the first quarter, up 27% from the previous quarter, although that is still dwarfed by 37 million iPhone sales.

Microsoft does not detail overall Windows phone sales or financials, but did say last quarter that phone-related revenue rose by $259 million, which includes licensing revenue from Android phones, which use some technology patented by Microsoft.

Windows phones tend to fare better overseas, where they have as much as 20% share in some markets such as Mexico and Poland, and almost 7 percent in Britain, according to Microsoft.

That is partly because the role of powerful carriers such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which dominate US phone retail, is less pronounced in overseas markets.

"AT&T and Verizon have been great partners," said Myerson. "But where the market dynamics are different, and where the operators play a different role, we have done better."

Heavy up-front subsidies from AT&T and Verizon, in return for long-term service contracts, mean US customers can afford the best hardware from Apple and Samsung. Even though Windows phones are also subsidised, Myerson admits it has been hard to break that lock on the home market.

"It (subsidisation) is a compelling business model for them. If you are Samsung, Apple, AT&T or Verizon, it's where everything's working, you are growing share, you are growing profits," said Myerson. "If you are an incumbent with a successful business model, you're not going to be jumping to throw it out."

As a challenger to those incumbents, Myerson says Microsoft has to differentiate on more than just price.

After introducing "killer hardware," he says the next task for Windows phones is to leverage Microsoft's Office and Xbox products to make a genuinely new phone experience, whether as a work tool or advanced toy.

"I don't think we've come near to the full potential," he said. "Those are our two dimensions here, Office and Xbox. We want to bring to life getting work done and bring to life that serious fun, here on this thing in your pocket. That's going to develop over time."

Myerson played down reports that Microsoft was working on a phone of its own, to follow up on its Surface tablet.

"Nokia's doing a great job," he said. "They really are receiving all of our go-to-market energy right now."

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Microsoft To Sell Lumia 521 Through Walmart

Bangalore: In search of widening its user base, Microsoft Corp plans to sell Nokia Lumia 521, at Walmart later this month at an unsubsidized price under $150, reports Business Insider.

Walmart is believed to start carrying the phone next week. The Nokia Lumia 521 was sold out at the first retailer, the Home Shopping Network last week. The device is a T-Mobile specific variant of the Lumia 520, 4G mid-range Smartphone that was debuted at Mobile World Congress in February. It offers certain high-end features like 4-inch touch screen, five megapixel camera and 8GB storage expandable to 64GB.

As Walmart will be selling Lumia 521 with T-Mobile’s $30/month unlimited data and text plan, the phone doesn’t require a long-term contract and will work out much cheaper than heavily subsidized iPhones and upscale Android devices that generally come with pricy long-term contracts.

If the sale turns out to be successful at Walmart, Microsoft may have found another way to attract more users to its Windows Phone platform. The more users, the more app developers it will attract and hence more apps will bring in more users.

Currently Windows Phones have only 3.2 percent market share in entire U.S., compared to 39 percent for Apple and 52 percent for Android.

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Samsung Galaxy S4 earns Pentagon security nod

The Pentagon gives official approval to any Samsung device protected by the Knox security software, which for now includes just the Galaxy S4.

Samsung's Galaxy S4 has been approved for government use.

Samsung is now clear to start pitching its new flagship phone to the government.
The handset maker announced Friday that its Knox-enabled mobile devices have been approved by the Pentagon for government use. Samsung's Knox software offers high-level encryption, a VPN feature, and a way to separate personal data from work data. The software also enables IT administrators to manage a mobile device through specific policies.
For now, the Galaxy S4 is the only Samsung device equipped with Knox. But the company promises that other smartphones as well as tablets will receive the security software.

The thumb's up from the Pentagon means that the S4 and future Knox devices can be used by U.S. government and military departments that tap into the Department of Defense networks. Access to these networks requires high security standards, and the S4 is the first Android phone to meet the requirements, according to Samsung.
The new security clearance also opens up certain types of businesses as potential new customers for Samsung.
"We are very pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of Defense has approved Samsung Knox-enabled devices for use in DoD networks," Samsung Mobile President JK Shin said in a statement. "This approval enables other government agencies and regulated industries such as health care and financial services to adopt Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets. This is a significant milestone for Samsung as we work to grow our relationships within government and large corporate enterprises."
On Thursday, the Pentagon gave the same approval to BlackBerry devices with the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which translates into its Q10 and Z10 smartphones and Playbook tablets.
In the past, BlackBerry was the go-to vendor for government and big business due to the high-level security on its devices. But Apple and Android have begun carving out of a chunk of this lucrative market. Samsung in particular is aiming to muscle in on BlackBerry's territory with help from its Knox software.
Part of the Samsung for Enterprise (SAFE) initiative, Knox comes built into the operating system and addresses all major security holes in Android, according to the company. Knox's ability to keep personal and business data separate matches a similar feature in BB10 called BlackBerry Balance.
Up to now at least, BlackBerry hasn't appeared to be concerned about Samsung's efforts.
"Whatever any of our competitors announce, one thing won't change. The most secure mobile computing solution is a BlackBerry device running on a BlackBerry platform," David Smith, executive vice president of mobile computing for BlackBerry, said in February.
The government's nod to both Samsung and BlackBerrry still leaves Apple out in the cold.
The iPhone maker is also seeking approval from the Department of Defense for its mobile devices. Specifically, the DOD needs to certify the iOS 6 operating system as secure enough to be used by defense agencies and the military. However, that approval is expected within the next few weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Passing the government's security test doesn't automatically guarantee a sale. Approvals "do not directly result in product orders, but facilitate the process by eliminating the need for security reviews at the individual DOD organization level," a Defense Department spokesman told the Journal.
Samsung, BlackBerry, and potentially Apple will still need to fight over lucrative government contracts just as they do in the business world. But assuming Apple does win security approval, all three rivals will duke it out on an even playing field.

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Apple extends lead over Samsung in U.S. smartphones

Apple's iOS also took market share away from Google's Android in the first quarter, according to ComScore.

 

Maybe it's time to hold off on the Apple negativity.
The iPhone franchise captured 39 percent of the U.S. smartphone market in the first quarter, extending its lead over Samsung, which garnered 21.7 percent of the market, according to research firm ComScore.
Interestingly, Apple's iOS took market share away from Google's Android, which traditionally has seen more rapid growth.

Apple saw its smartphone market share rise by nearly 3 percentage points in the quarter, while Samsung's share inched up slightly. The next three largest handset vendor, HTC, Motorola, and LG, all lost market share in the period.
The first quarter was fairly quiet when it came to new smartphones hitting the market, with heavy hitters such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One not debuting in the U.S. until early in the second quarter.
As a result, it appears the incumbents continued to flourish, giving the edge to the iPhone 5 and its older models, as well as the Galaxy S3.
The numbers come as Apple continues to get hit with concern that the company has lost its edge, and that it won't be able to continue the torrid pace of growth it has enjoyed for the last several years. In addition, there's an increasing view that the competition, particularly Samsung, has caught up.
But the first-quarter results show Apple still has some mojo left, although it may fade in the second quarter as several high-profile phones go on sale.
Google's Android remains the largest platform, with 52 percent of the market, although it lost more than 1 percentage point of market share. Microsoft's Windows Phone was the only other gainer, inching up to 2.9 percent.

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How to stop Google Now for iOS from accessing your location in the background and causing battery drain

While Google Now coming to iOS was a welcome news to users who were not able to experience the interactive service on their iPhones, a number of users have been reporting a drop in their iPhone's battery backup after using the service through the Google search app. Users have also reported seeing the location services icon on their phone's status bar even when they're not using the app.

Google Now offers snippets of information including traffic alerts, directions and other location based services that make use of the iPhone's Location Services to offer relevant information to users based on their current location. Google Now also uses location services in the background to report the user's location to Google to keep a track of the user's location history in his/ her Google account to offer better information through Google Now cards related to location.

This is one reason why the location services icon is displayed even when the user is not actively using the app and might result in depleted battery life.

Thankfully, location reporting can be turned off easily using  the Google Search app's Privacy settings. One can go to the Google app, tap on the settings gear icon on the top right, tap on Privacy, scroll down and turn Location Reporting off via the toggle. One can also clear Location History to delete previous location related information stored by Google.

Although you'd still be able to use Google Now without location reporting turned on, some kinds of information, such as traffic or local search might be limited or might not show up at all. So you'd not be able to reap the full benefits of Google Now.

If you don't want to use Google Now at all, you can turn off location services for the app altogether. You can go to the iPhone's Settings, tap on the Privacy sub-menu, select the Location Services sub-menu and turn Google's location services off. However, according to Google, the search results through the app will still reflect a rough approximation of the user's location based on the user's IP address and recent locations that have been saved.

Google claims that there's minimal impact on the phone's battery as Location Reporting has been optimized to use GPS as infrequently as possible. So if you've not noticed a significant drop in your iPhone's battery back-up you could continue to keep the Location Settings enabled to get accurate results from Google Now.

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Angry Birds Friends released for iOS, Android; original game free on Windows Phone till May 15

Rovio has released Angry Birds Friends, the latest iteration in everyone's favorite pig popping adventures. The game is now available as a free download for iOS and Android.
Angry Birds Friends puts a social twist to the game you are familiar with, letting you challenge your Facebook friends for the title of ultimate bird flinger. Players have the option to compete in weekly tournaments with friends and see if they can snag the gold, silver or bronze trophies. This is similar to how Rovio has been offering the game Angry Birds on Facebook.
Also included are daily rewards, the ability to send and receive gifts, and, of course, bragging about your accomplishments. If you're playing Angry Birds Friends on Facebook, your tournament progress will automatically be updated, so you can continue playing wherever you are.
The game also includes four classic power-ups, plus one exclusive to Angry Birds Friends on mobile.
Angry Birds Friends is now available as a free download for iOS and Android.
Rovia also announced a new version of the original Angry Birds game for Windows Phone, replacing the $2.99 version released earlier. The game has over 400 levels from the get-go, and is free to download for the first two weeks. The Windows Phone 8 version also features have Xbox Live integration with new achievements and leader boards.
Rovio didn't mention the exact reason for re-release, simply saying "it will be technically easier to support" the new version. The company recommends you download the new title even if you bought the earlier title, as the original game will no longer be updated.
Angry Birds for Windows Phone is free to download until May 15.

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BlackBerry CEO says no one will use tablets five years from now

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins is in the news again. After firing salvos at Apple and Samsung, he has come out in the open against the business case for tablets.

During an interview at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles, Heins said that he does't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet in five years and that tablets were not a good business model. The interview was reported by Bloomberg.

 "In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet anymore," said Heins. "Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model."

It's not the first time that Heins has questioned the tablet business. However, the new comment indicates that the company is not looking at tablets, at all.

In a previous interview Heins had talked about the company's stand on introducing a new tablet and had said that the business case for re-entering the tablets market was not compelling at least in the near term.

Heins had also admitted that with the PlayBook, which did not turn out to be a success, the company took the plunge a little too early as it was excited to show off its new operating system and majorly missed out on the app ecosystem.

"I wouldn't want to do it the same way again, if I do something around tablets, I want it to be really substantial and meaningful, and quite frankly it would need to be profitable as well," he had said.

"I think the profit pool is very very thin. Kudos to Apple, I think they really managed to own that space, so it doesn't make sense for me to just take this head on. I need to figure out, for my enterprise customers, for my consumers, for my BB10 audience, what can I do that provides them a mobile computing experience in the form factor of a tablet, which goes beyond just the puristic tablet experience."

So it looks like we're not going to see new tablets based on BlackBerry 10, if you consider the CEO's voice to be the determinant of the company's future strategy. Users are still waiting for a BlackBerry 10 update for the PlayBook, which the company had promised earlier.

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HTC One's 'downmarket' cousin M4's picture, specs leak

A cheaper version of HTC's critically acclaimed flagship phone, HTC One, has surfaced online. Codenamed, M4, the mid-range variant of the phone follows the same design language that we've seen in the One, although it's not known if it will also use the same materials. It also features two speaker grills on the front and comes with Beats audio.

The images of the phone were brought to public domain by the notorious Evleaks who also informs that the phone would sport a 4.3-inch 720p screen, and will be powered by a dual-core processor, unlike the One's quad-core CPU. It will have 2GB RAM and the same Ultrapixel camera that featured in the HTC One (Review | Pictures).It will house a 1700mAh non-removable battery and offer 16GB of internal memory.

The report indicates that the phone will ship towards the end of the second quarter with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

It's not the first time that the existence of the M4 has been suggested. In February, with the M7 or HTC One leaks, Evleaks had indicated that HTC was working on two other phones, namely the M4 and G2. Evleaks had said that the M4 was a premium smartphone, which would be one notch below the HTC M7 and will come with a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon SoC running Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), along with Sense 5.0. He had also confirmed the other specifications including LTE support. The G2 meanwhile is rumoured to be an entry-level device with a 3.5-inch screen with HVGA display, 512MB RAM and a 5-megapixel camera. This smartphone is touted to have a 1GHz processor and run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Evleaks' leaks have mostly turned out to be reliable, so it's likely that we might hear about the new phone from HTC soon. It will be interesting to see HTC follow Samsung's footsteps and introduce mid-range variants of flagships. Samsung is reportedly going to launch the Galaxy S4 mini, a mid-range variant of its flagship smartphone, Galaxy S4.

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Microsoft mocks Apple-Samsung rivalry in latest Lumia ad

Microsoft has rolled out a new television commercial for Nokia Lumia 920. In this ad, Microsoft seems to be mocking the rivalry between Apple and Samsung to drive home the "Switch to Lumia" message.
The ad opens with a wedding ceremony in progress. As soon as the bride and groom are about to exchange their vows, everybody at the wedding takes out their smartphones and phablets to capture the moment. One of the guests gets up from his seat to click the picture through his Samsung Galaxy Note II phablet.

This tips off an iPhone 5 user who blurts, "Excuse me, would you mind moving your enormous phone?" This triggers a war of words between the Apple and Samsung fans present at the wedding. Soon the mocking turns into a physical fight and there is chaos all around.

In the middle of the fight two waiters are seen clicking pictures of the brawl with their Nokia Lumia 920. The male waiter asks his female colleague, "Do you think that if they knew about the Nokia Lumia, they'd stop fighting all the time?" To which the lady replies, "I don't know, I kind of think, they like fighting". And the message comes across, "Don't fight. Switch."

The idea behind the ad is that Lumia is a far better choice than Apple or Samsung and hence you don't need to argue and just switch.

Though the ad is funny and eye catching but it seems to be more about Apple and Samsung rather than Windows Phone. As a matter of fact, the Nokia Lumia 920 has a far lesser screen time than iPhone or Galaxy devices, so we don't really think that this advertising will be effective in boosting sales for the Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone in the US.

It's noteworthy that this is not the first time that Microsoft has targeted someone through an advertising campaign. In November, Microsoft had launched "Scroogled" campaign through which it tried to warn consumers that they risk getting "scroogled" if they rely on Google's shopping search service.

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IBM Creates The World's Smallest Movie

Bangalore: IBM Research Scientists on Wednesday unveiled the ‘world’s smallest movie’ made up of atoms. The movie tracks the movement of these tiny particles accurately placed to approximately create 250 frames of stop motion action.

Named as ‘The Boy and His Atom’, the movie conveys about science to the society in terms of data storage. According to IBM, this kind of science is required to improve computer data storage as tech firms resort to traditional methods.

The simple plot shows a character named Atom who makes friends with another atom and follows him on a journey of dancing and bouncing with playful music in the background.

According to IBM Research’s Principle Investigator Andreas Heinrich, “Capturing, positioning and shaping atoms to create an original motion picture on the atomic level is a precise science and entirely novel.” “At IBM, researchers don’t just read about science, we do it. This movie is a fun way to share the atomic-scale world while opening up a dialogue with students and other on the new frontiers of math and science”, he adds.

In order to make the movie, researchers used their own invented tool, a Nobel Prize acclaimed scanning tunneling microscope to move the atoms. The microscope precisely moved and placed the atoms in their specified locations by controlling a super-sharp needle along a copper surface.

As IBM says, the Movie is certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the ‘World’s Smallest Stop Motion Film’.

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Today`S QuoTes

“Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources”

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‘B-schools should cover sales as a separate subject’

What kind of skills are critical to the manufacturing sector?
Skills are very specific to a role in question. But at a broad level critical thinking and interpersonal skills are important.  
What kind of leadership qualities do you look for in your employees?
Ability to hold self and others accountable; ability to lead while there is uncertainty and ambiguity; leading with inclusiveness and in diverse environment.  
Do you offer any specific training programme to your employees?
We believe people develop most through experiences and exposure. So we invest a lot of time and energy in ensuring that people get those opportunities. Class room training is used more as a support to those efforts.  
Are there specialised degrees for these roles? Please give examples.
There are no specialised degrees in our type of industry as such. But we do hire Mechanical and Electronics engineers and related specialisation for our manufacturing, engineering and sales functions and management degrees for roles across various functions and businesses.
What kind of courses should the universities include in their curriculum to prepare students for this industry?
In case of business schools I feel they should cover sales as a separate subject and should have special focus on services selling as well as B2B selling. In many business schools there is far too much emphasis on marketing and that too FMCG marketing. Business schools need to go beyond that to make their products more relevant for us.  
What percentage of your hiring is done through campus recruitment? What kind of colleges/universities do you usually recruit from?
Traditionally we were not doing a lot of our hiring straight from universities. We have changed that in the last couple of years. Now we hire 15 – 20 % of hires from universities. We hire from engineering and business schools and we also hire trainees in commercial functions.  
What has been the hiring trend in the manufacturing industry so far?
The industry has seen robust growth for the last few years. We are witnessing certain amount of stagnation in 2012-2013. But things are going to pick up from the next year. Hiring has followed the same trend and I am anticipating higher level of hiring next year. 
What are some of the best practices for retention of talent in your industry?
We invest heavily in creating a great and consistent employee experience. Consistency is very important. To that end we invest a lot in developing our people managers. Because the company can say what it wants to say but at the end of the day for any employee the employee experience manifests itself through their immediate manager and their business unit or functional managers. If those people managers cannot manage and treat their people well every day of the year the employee is going to be unhappy. So I believe outstanding people managers are the key to retaining good talent.  
What are the ongoing challenges as far as recruitment is concerned?
Attracting diverse talent to our workforce, finding talent for operations and finance functions.

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