Google+ won't remain a social network for long: Report

Google will turn Google+ into a platform instead of a product, TechCrunch reports citing "multiple sources."

Google is reportedly planning to dismantle its social network, Google+. Google will turn Google+ into a platform instead of a product, TechCrunch reports citing "multiple sources."

This means that it will no longer exist as a social network aimed at competing with Facebook, but it still may be integrated into Google's existing products.

The company has allegedly been shifting the teams that used to be at "the core" of Google+ and is moving more talent toward the Android team.

Google had 1,000-1,200 employees working on Google+. Facebook has 6,818 employees.

According to TechCrunch, here's how the shakeup will play out:

* The Google Hangouts team will be moving to the Android team
* The Photo teams are also likely to move to the Android team
* The rest of the employees are likely to take on mobile projects, such as working on widgets that would employ Google+ as a platform rather than a product. However, Google is still undecided on the matter.

All of these Google+ changes surfaced after Vic Gundotra, who led Google+, announced that he was leaving Google.

A Google representative has denied to TechCrunch that any changes within the company's Google+ strategy will change, saying that Gundotra's exit has "no impact" on its plans for Google+.

Google is also reportedly scrapping mandatory Google+ integration with its other products. That doesn't mean it will completely go away, but the integration may be scaled back.

Gundotra reportedly clashed with others inside the company, particularly around this idea of "forced" Google+ integrations into products like YouTube and Gmail.

The changes aren't particularly surprising, given Google+ as a standalone social media site didn't reach the level of popularity as rivals such as Facebook. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google+ had about seven million daily active users two years ago.

By active, the WSJ means who read posts on the social network, not those who click Google+ notifications while using Google's other services. It's possible it's grown since then, but considering that Google+ is being broken up, it seems unlikely that it had massive growth
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Apple offers to fix rare fault in older iPhones

Apple has offered to fix some older iPhone 5 smartphones with flawed on-off buttons.

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple has offered to fix some older iPhone 5 smartphones with flawed on-off buttons. 

The California-based company said a "small percentage" of iPhone 5 models manufactured through March of 2013 may have on-off buttons that stop working or work intermittently, in a posting on its support website. 

"Apple will replace the sleep/wake button mechanism, free of charge, on iPhone 5 models that exhibit this issue and have a qualifying serial number," it said at the website. 

The support web page contained instructions for iPhone 5 owners, along with a way to check serial numbers to determine if smartphones qualify for free repair. 

The process began Friday in the US and Canada and will begin in other countries on May 2, according to Apple. 

Apple prides itself on the quality of its devices, and offers of free fixes are rare for the company. 

In mid-2010, Apple put off dealing with concerns about iPhone 4 reception problems and the ensuing controversy came to be dubbed "Antennagate." 

Apple was forced to address the issue after Consumer Reports, the influential product review magazine, said it could not recommend the iPhone 4 because of signal loss problems it blamed on a design flaw. 

Apple downplayed the issue as being the overblown result of the way people held their smartphones and offered free cases as a fix.

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Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini to be waterproof

The mini version of Galaxy S5 smartphone will be waterproof, according to a statement on Samsung New Zealand’s official website. 

NEW DELHI: The mini version of Galaxy S5 smartphone will be waterproof, according to a statement on Samsung New Zealand's official website. This marks a rare occasion when a manufacturer has confirmed the existence and revealed features of an unannounced product, albeit most likely due to oversight. 

Samsung's new Galaxy S5 as well as last year's Galaxy S4 Active feature IP67 certification, meaning that the two can withstand being submerged up to 1 metre deep in water for a maximum of 30 minutes, along with resistant to dust. 

Under the warranty exclusions section on its website, Samsung New Zealand has written that "submersion of the Samsung Galaxy S5, S5 Mini or S4 Active mobile phone in water for 30 minutes or more" will result in the warranty being voided. 

This statement suggests that Galaxy S5 Mini will be water- and dust-resistant as well. 

The upcoming Galaxy S5 Mini is rumoured to have a 4.5-inch 720p screen, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 1.5GB RAM, Android 4.4 (KitKat) operating system, 8MP rear camera, 16MB internal storage, microSD support and 2MP front camera. 

Samsung is also working on a camera-centric variant of Galaxy S5 (expected to be named Galaxy K Zoom), as well as a premium version with metallic body and higher-end specifications
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Higher growth may not create as many jobs

A healthier world economy and a more decisive government at the Centre is expected to push up India’s growth from decade low 4.9% likely this year and create more jobs. But a Crisil report suggests that in recent years, there is lesser employment generation per unit of growth and just higher growth may not be sufficient to absorb everyone entering the workforce:

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High demand for talent in tier II and III locations in India

Industries are leveraging the potential of small cities to expand business and in turn creating huge employment opportunities 

Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Chandigarh, are the top tier II/III locations, accounting for over 50 per cent of the total demand in small cities, according to the TimesJobs.com data.

Government and industry bodies are taking special initiatives and creating SEZs along with extended tax sops to encourage investments in these regions. All this has played a vital role in promoting these small towns into cities of the future.

What metro lacks, small cities offer

Rising inflation, real estate costs, attrition rates, lack of space in the metros and other big cities are the primary reason for industries to shift to tier II and III cities. “IT and ITeS companies are increasingly setting up operations in tier II and III cities as it equips them to cater in regional languages, especially for domestic clients,” said Sandeep Ladda, India Technology leader, PwC India. He highlighted other factors that are contributing to the rise in demand in small cities:

• Emergence of hub and spoke model – tier I cities as hubs and the tier II, III and IV cities as spokes
• According to NASSCOM, the operational cost savings are estimated to be around 10-20 per cent
• Cost of living in these cities is lower by 10-25 per cent as against tier I cities
• The workforce is more stable in the smaller cities; stickiness is higher
• Sector is promoting balanced regional growth – out of the 99 operational IT SEZs, tier II and III cities hold 44 per cent share

Opportunities galore

Over 35 per cent of the total jobs in tier II and III locations belong to the Manufacturing and IT/Telecom sector, according to the latest TimesJobs.com data.

Demand is high across key professions. Since demand is primarily driven by the Manufacturing and IT/Telecom sector; there is huge demand for engineers and IT staff. Engineers, sales business development and IT/Telecom professionals together account for nearly 50 per cent of the total demand in Tier II and III locations, according to TimesJobs.com data.

Accounting and finance profiles are also sought after in small locations. Industry experts reasoned that a mix of core and support staff is required as a company expands business in these untapped markets.

Maximum demand is for freshers, with less than 2 years of experience followed by candidates with 2-5 years of experience.

Future jobs hubs

This trend is expected to continue in the future as Tier 2/3 cities will have access to a much larger and employable talent pool with 8 of the 9 new IITs being set-up in these locations.

According to NASSCOM revenues from tier II and III cities will grow faster. Currently (FY 10-13), Chandigarh has a CAGR of 40 per cent, Kerala has 26 per cent. With 40 per cent of India’s total infrastructure spend on tier II and III cities, better infrastructure and improved connectivity is expected in times ahead. This will add to the potential of these cities as future job hubs.

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Bathe in morning sunlight to lose weight

Bathe in morning sunlight to control weight! (Thinkstock Photos/Getty Images)

Take morning sunlight not just to spruce up your vitamin D levels but manage weight too, research reveals.

People who had most of their daily exposure to even moderately bright light in the morning had a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) than those who had most of their light exposure later in the day, the study has found.

The timing, intensity and duration of your light exposure during the day is linked to your weight.

"The earlier this light exposure occurred during the day, the lower individuals' body mass index," said Kathryn Reid, a research associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

The later the hour of moderately bright light exposure, the higher a person's BMI, he added.

The influence of morning light exposure on body weight was independent of an individual's physical activity level, caloric intake, sleep timing, age or season.

It accounted for about 20 percent of a person's BMI.

"Light is the most potent agent to synchronise your internal body clock that regulates circadian rhythms, which, in turn, also regulate energy balance," senior author Phyllis C. Zee explained.

The message is that you should get more bright light between 8 a.m. and noon.

About 20 to 30 minutes of morning light is enough to affect BMI.

"If a person does not get sufficient light at the appropriate time of day, it could de-synchronise your internal body clock which is known to alter metabolism and can lead to weight gain," Zee added.

Just like people are trying to get more sleep to help them lose weight, perhaps manipulating light is another way to lose weight, said the study published in the journal PLOS ONE.

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Amazon smartphone to support tilt gestures over touch: Report

The long-rumored Amazon phone will reportedly sport enough sensors to rival Microsoft's Kinect, and those sensors will enable some unique forms of interaction.

The long-rumored Amazon phone will reportedly sport enough sensors to rival Microsoft's Kinect, and those sensors will enable some unique forms of interaction. 

The Amazon smartphone will feature four infrared cameras on its front so it can effectively track the position of users' faces in relation to the display, according to BGR, which spoke with "multiple trusted sources" on the matter. 

Perhaps even more revolutionary than this set-up will be the Amazon handset's tilt controls, which may aim to make the large phone (4.7 inches, according to whispers) easier to use with one hand. 

It seems these tilt controls will not only replace existing essential functions, but also create new features, like revealing extraneous but helpful information without requiring touch interactions. 

Tilt to live
For example, tilting the Amazon phone in the maps app might reveal Yelp ratings for any visible restaurants. 

Or tilting the phone could reveal labels beneath icons in apps where they aren't normally present, in case you forget what a button does. 

The tilt gestures would be present in Amazon's included first-party apps, of course; tilting in Amazon's video store could reveal IMDB ratings, and moving the phone on Amazon.com product listings might flip between photos. 

However, the new controls might also cause menus that previously would have been accessed with a tap to slide onto the screen when the phone is tilted in the corresponding direction. 

Tilting could reveal the X-Ray menu in the Kindle app, or a photo pane in the messaging app, or extended forecasts in weather. And really obvious functions — like scrolling up and down in books and websites when the phone is tilted — would be possible as well. 

Read the signs
There's one more new feature of note, sources said: The Amazon phone will have special optical character recognition software that can interpret and convert text captured using its rear camera. 

Using this function you might snap a photo of a business card to have the phone automatically add information to your contacts, or be able to quickly translate signs written in a foreign language. 

There's plenty more we'd like to know about the Amazon phone, but for now there's no official word. That could change any time, so keep watching for more info
.

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WhatsApp in numbers: 500 million users, 700 million photos, 100 million videos

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum said that of these 500 million WhatsApp users, around 48 million are based in India. In Brazil, the service has 45 million users.

NEW DELHI: The numbers released by WhatsApp on Wednesday shows that the instant messaging app continues to find users at an astounding pace. In a blog post, WhatsApp announced that it now has over 500 million active users. These users share 700 million photos and 100 million videos daily. 

"Thanks to all of you, half a billion people around the world are now regular, active WhatsApp users," WhatsApp noted in a post on the official blog. "In the last few months, we've grown fastest in countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia, and our users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos every single day. We could go on, but for now, it's more important that we get back to work - because here at WhatsApp, we're just getting started." 

WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum told Recode, a website that covers technology news, that of these 500 million users, around 48 million are based in India. In Brazil, the service has 45 million users. 

WhatsApp, which started in 2009, was bought by Facebook in February in a deal worth $19 billion. When seen together, Facebook and WhatsApp now have nearly 1.5 billion active users, giving Facebook a huge reach, specially on mobiles. 

Earlier on April 1, WhatsApp had announced that its users exchanged 64 billion messages in 24 hours, setting a new record for the service. 

However, despite the huge user base, it is not yet clear how Facebook will monetise WhatsApp. The instant messaging app doesn't show advertisements and both Koum and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have said that this won't change anytime soon. 

Koum told Recode that despite the fast growth, WhatsApp was not yet thinking about monetisation. He said the focus remained on providing clean and usable instant messaging service. 

"There's not enough money and not enough celebrities in the world to convince people to use a shitty product. People are so savvy these days. People expect a good user experience," Koum told Recode. 

He also said the free voice calls feature on WhatsApp would be available to users in the coming months
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Amazon smartphone to support tilt gestures over touch: Report

The long-rumored Amazon phone will reportedly sport enough sensors to rival Microsoft's Kinect, and those sensors will enable some unique forms of interaction.

The long-rumored Amazon phone will reportedly sport enough sensors to rival Microsoft's Kinect, and those sensors will enable some unique forms of interaction. 

The Amazon smartphone will feature four infrared cameras on its front so it can effectively track the position of users' faces in relation to the display, according to BGR, which spoke with "multiple trusted sources" on the matter. 

Perhaps even more revolutionary than this set-up will be the Amazon handset's tilt controls, which may aim to make the large phone (4.7 inches, according to whispers) easier to use with one hand. 

It seems these tilt controls will not only replace existing essential functions, but also create new features, like revealing extraneous but helpful information without requiring touch interactions. 

Tilt to live
For example, tilting the Amazon phone in the maps app might reveal Yelp ratings for any visible restaurants. 

Or tilting the phone could reveal labels beneath icons in apps where they aren't normally present, in case you forget what a button does. 

The tilt gestures would be present in Amazon's included first-party apps, of course; tilting in Amazon's video store could reveal IMDB ratings, and moving the phone on Amazon.com product listings might flip between photos. 

However, the new controls might also cause menus that previously would have been accessed with a tap to slide onto the screen when the phone is tilted in the corresponding direction. 

Tilting could reveal the X-Ray menu in the Kindle app, or a photo pane in the messaging app, or extended forecasts in weather. And really obvious functions — like scrolling up and down in books and websites when the phone is tilted — would be possible as well. 

Read the signs
There's one more new feature of note, sources said: The Amazon phone will have special optical character recognition software that can interpret and convert text captured using its rear camera. 

Using this function you might snap a photo of a business card to have the phone automatically add information to your contacts, or be able to quickly translate signs written in a foreign language. 

There's plenty more we'd like to know about the Amazon phone, but for now there's no official word. That could change any time, so keep watching for more info
.

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Apple and Nike may announce iBand this year

Geektime says it's spoken to two sources in Cupertino with knowledge of what Apple is up to and they say that Apple and Nike are plotting a joint product for launch before the Christmas season.

We thought there was something a bit fishy about Nike confirming that it is laying off staff in its Fuelband division - according to a new report, there might be more to this story than either Apple or Nike are letting on. 

Geektime says it's spoken to two sources in Cupertino with knowledge of what Apple is up to and they say that Apple and Nike are plotting a joint product for launch before the Christmas season. 

That general era has been pegged to the iWatch before but the latest claim is that this won't be so much an iWatch as an iBand. The sources claim that Apple will launch a smart band packed with sensors not only for monitoring user activity but also for operating other devices (such as iPhones and iPads) via gesture controls. 

Band it about
The report says that Nike "will play a significant part" in whatever product Apple is putting the final touches to, which may explain why it doesn't sound too committed to any future Fuelbands right now. 

It also plays well with another rumour that Nike is planning to open up its software to other wearable devices, including Apple's anticipated wearable.
If Apple does have an iBand planned, it could make sense for Cupertino and Nike to team up: Apple gets the benefit of Nike's existing fitness tech and expertise and Nike doesn't risk being eclipsed by Apple's wearable smartband. 

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Octa-core processor in Windows Phone? Not anytime soon

Though to be fair to Microsoft, the benefits of eight-core processors in a phone are not yet apparent. 

NEW DELHI: With the latest update - Windows Phone 8.1 - to its mobile operating system, Microsoft may have achieved parity with the Android on the software side but the company has no immediate plans to join the core race and support handsets running eight-core processors. This is in stark contrast to Android phone companies, which are rushing to market with handsets that are powered by eight-core processors.

Though to be fair to Microsoft, the benefits of eight-core processors in a phone are not yet apparent. Apple, which sells iPhones, also doesn't use four-core or eight-core processors. The iPhone 5S uses a dual-core processor but offers ample performance for smooth user interface.

Vineet Durani, who heads Windows Phone division in Microsoft in India, told TOI that currently the company supports only Qualcomm hardware and for a foreseeable future this is not likely to change. The eight-core processors powering a number of handsets in Indian market are made by MediaTek, a Taiwanese firm. Samsung also makes eight-core processors and uses them in its high-end phones like Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4.

Currently, Qualcomm doesn't make eight-core processors. But the company has announced two eight-core processors -- Snapdragon 615 and Snapdragon 810 - that will be available to phone companies by around the end of this year. The phones powered by these processors will come to market in 2015.

"We don't have any plans to explore chipsets (processors and RAM etc) made by others... At this point of time companies making Windows Phone have to use the Qualcomm hardware," said Durani. "I can't comment on the future but I can say that we are highly committed to Qualcomm hardware. Qualcomm is a great partner and I don't see any reason to look at anybody else right now because the objective really is to push out great devices... affordable devices and we feel that we can do it with the Qualcomm hardware."

However, unlike in the past when Microsoft tightly controlled the Windows Phone platform, now the company is more accommodating. For local firms like Micromax and Lava it is now much easier to come out with a Windows Phone device. The most important change has been removal of the license fee that Microsoft used to charge for Windows Phone OS.

Microsoft has tied up with Chinese ODMs (original design manufacturers) like Foxconn and Longcheer. Any company that wants to enter the Windows Phone market can buy handsets from these ODMs and sell units locally after rebranding them. This is similar to the model used by many Indian phone companies for Android phones.

"The only difference (from Android ecosystem) is that we require certain level of hardware performance for a Windows Phone device. We have licensing agreements with Chinese ODMs and (local) companies can directly approach the ODMs to get Windows Phone devices. They don't even have to talk to Microsoft India," said Durani.

He said that hardware requirements are to make sure that Windows Phone users get a good experience. "Because you are adhering to a certain set of specifications, the performance of all Windows Phone devices is at a level that is acceptable to us," said Durani
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Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi is coming to India in 2014

Xiaomi, the China based handset maker known for its aggressive pricing, is coming to India in 2014. 

NEW DELHI: It's official! Xiaomi, the China based handset maker known for its aggressive pricing, is coming to India in 2014.

Xiaomi's official Twitter handle posted a tweet saying, "Xiaomi is coming to 10 countries in 2014! Malaysia, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico..."
The company has not shared any specifics related to the launch time frame. The announcement comes a day after the company renamed its official website from Xiaomi.com to Mi.com, signalling global expansion. The company sells its flagship smartphones under the 'Mi' sub-brand. Xiaomi's Android-based mobile operating system is also known as MIUI.


Last month, Hugo Barra, vice president of Xiaomi and formerly the vice president of product management for Android, had told technology website CNET in an interview that the company was set to enter India with aggressively priced products. He added that Xiaomi plans to sell phones almost close to cost and that Xiaomi's phones in India will promise performance and quality.

Google India's head, Rajan Anandan had also tweeted about his meeting with Xiaomi executives and had said that the India, which is the second-fastest growing smartphone market in the world after China, is set to change.

Xiaomi, which will be the third known Chinese player after Gionee and Oppo, is working on forming relationships with telecom operators and partners in India. This does not include larger Chinese players like Lenovo, Huawei and ZTE, who have already been present in India.

Xiaomi has a unique business model - it makes a limited number of smartphones that are sold only on the internet. It has tasted success with this method. It sold 10,000 units of its Red Rice smartphone in 36 seconds in November 2013. It has also sold 2,00,000 smartphones in three minutes on last year's Singles Day, which is celebrated as China's answer to Valentine's Day. Xiaomi is regarded as the biggest threat to Apple and Samsung in China
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