Virtual Wallets and How to Use Them

Lately it seems like most companies are falling over themselves to find new ways for you to make payments. Cash went out of fashion ages ago and instead of having to rely on a credit or debit card companies now want you to pay forjust about everything using a virtual wallet. After facing regulatory troubles Uber India has now tied up with PayTM to handle its cashless payments while others like Ola have chosen to launch wallet systems of their own. For most of us, those terms are pretty meaningless. In case you're wondering what a virtual wallet is, or why you'd want to use one, we've got you covered.

What's 'Virtual' about this wallet?
The basic concept is really simple - a virtual wallet just serves as a place to hold some of your money online. You make payments using the money stored in your wallet instead of using a credit card, debit card or net banking, which means your bank account doesn't need to be accessed. Of course, adding money to the wallet still requires you to use one of those methods.

Once you've stored the money in a wallet, you can use it to make payments - to the wallet provider or to third party services depending on the type of wallet you've signed up for. Most services also come with a mobile app so you can easily check your balance and make purchases. Some wallet services such as PayTM are built around their own stores where you can buy goods, and some let you buy recharges for your phone or pay your DTH bill.

HTC RE Camera With 16-Megapixel CMOS Sensor Launched at Rs. 9,990

HTC on Friday at its 'Double Exposure' event in India has launched its RE action camera at an introductory price of Rs. 9,990, and says it will be exclusively available via e-commerce site Snapdeal in the first week of November.
The new GoPro-like RE action camera is called "a remarkable little camera" by HTC. It was launched globally last week alongside the Desire Eye selfie-focused smartphone. 

Apart from the RE camera, HTC has also launched the One (M8 Eye), as well as the octa-core Desire 820 and quad-core Desire 820q smartphones in India. The company also launched the Desire Eye selfie-focused smartphone in the country, besides the budget Desire 516C smartphone. 

With the launch of the new RE action camera, the Taiwanese giant is taking a big leap forward and is now more than just a smartphone maker. The company's new RE device will be available in the US starting November, and followed by other regions later. As of now, HTC has not revealed the pricing of the RE - it can be expected to be announced near release.

Interestingly, the RE camera device will be compatible with both Android and iOS devices. A companion app for both Android and iOS will be available for download soon, according to HTC.

The RE camera listing on the company's site notes, "Take complete control of your RE photos and videos with sharing functions and automatic storage with the RE app." Notably, HTC has already released an RE site for the India region tipping an imminent launch in the country soon.

As rumoured earlier, the new RE camera design is reminiscent of a PVC pipe with a camera inside.

Three Little Gizmos for the Perfect Selfie

Not all selfies are created equal. Some are blurry, are poorly framed or miss the action entirely because you might be scrubbing your thumb fishing for a virtual shutter button as the moment passes you by. Although phone manufacturers are trying to help by building in tools for better selfies, many of these have their limits. For better selfies, consider some of these gadgets for yourself or your loved ones.

1. Halo/Hisy ($25, roughly Rs. 1,547)
This one is really simple. The Halo is a small plastic button that serves as a wireless shutter trigger for your phone's camera. Its only job is to trigger your phone's shutter when you click the button. One function, one result.

My tests with the Halo for my Android phone went smoothly. The company makes an iPhone version called Hisy. You need to install its free camera app, Shutter Panorama, as neither Halo nor Hisy works with the regular camera app that comes with the phone.

2. Kodak Pixpro SL25 ($300, roughly Rs. 18,500)
The Pixpro SL25 from Kodak is essentially a camera lens that mounts onto your phone, allowing for higher resolution than what your phone's camera can capture. The Pixpro communicates with your phone over Wi-Fi and lets you compose the image on the phone's screen. Once the photos are snapped using the shutter button on the Pixpro, the phone serves primarily to review and share the images to social media services.

The downside is you have a second device to carry around, which defeats the purpose of taking selfies on the fly.

3. Satechi Smart Selfie Extension Arm Monopod ($50, roughly Rs. 3,100)
This telescoping monopod from Satechi helps get more than just yourself in the frame. Similar to the Kodak unit, this monopod has spring-loaded rubber pieces that grip the phone on its sides, holding it firmly in place. From there, you simply extend the telescoping device out to its full three feet and get lots of buddies or surroundings into the shot.

What really helps is that a shutter button on the grip of the pole connects to your phone via Bluetooth, allowing you to snap the selfie without reaching up to the phone. Once I paired the monopod to my phone and launched my default camera app, I was able to easily snap various selfies with a birds-eye view and other vantage points longer than my arm.

OnePlus One Launching in India on December 2 Exclusively on Amazon

OnePlus on Wednesday announced its One flagship smartphone will be available in India from Tuesday December 2, exclusively on Amazon.in. The company has yet to announce a price, but had earlier confirmed the 64GB version would cost less than Rs. 25,000. Pricing details will be announced at the launch event the same day.

In-line with the company's global invite system, the OnePlus One smartphone will be available for purchase only for users with invites. Users in India will receive India-specific invites through OnePlus and Amazon.

The company says the OnePlus and Amazon platforms have been integrated so that invites claimed by a OnePlus account can be used to purchase the '2014 Flagship Killer' on the Amazon OnePlus One page. Starting Wednesday, users can log onto oneplus.net/in to register their interest for a OnePlus One invite.
 
OnePlus in a statement said the launch of the One smartphone in India next week is the "next chapter" for the company, with an "entirely new team and model." The firm says the move will herald several firsts for the company, with the local chapter the first outside the company's headquarters to have a physical presence.

Uber India Offering 5 Free Rides via Paytm Wallet Till November 30

Uber India has been on a roll in India, as the company recently launched its services in Kochi and had also unveiled its low-cost UberGo service last week. Now, the company has announced free rides for both new and existing users who use Paytm wallet as their payment option.

The company explains that an Uber user can avail five free rides worth up to Rs. 300 each with no promo code required. The 5 free rides offer is available between the period starting Wednesday to 6pm IST Sunday, November 30.

 

Uber India adds that the free rides offer is valid across all Indian cities where the popular taxi and ridesharing service exists and can be availed on uberGO, uberX and UberBLACK. Users will have to link their Paytm account to the Uber app or create a new Paytm account to continue using the cab service in India.

For those unaware, Uber earlier this month tied up with Paytm to comply with Reserve Bank of India regulations for credit card payments in India. The Paytm wallet option is now available on Uber for Android and iOS apps. Users will have to top up their Paytm wallet and the fare will be automatically deducted from the wallet.

Nimbuzz Unveils Holaa! Caller ID App for Android; Seeks 10 Million Users

Unveiling its 'Made in India' caller identification app Holaa!, instant messaging platform Nimbuzz on Tuesday said it aims to garner about 10 million users for this service.

Holaa!, like Truecaller, allows users to see details like the caller's name, photo and location during an incoming call live. It also helps block spam calls from pesky spammers or other unwanted callers.

 

"On an average, 4 out of 10 calls on prepaid mobile numbers are from unknown numbers, while 1 out of these 4 unknown calls is a spam call," Nimbuzz India CEO Vikas Saxena told PTI.

This makes it one of the mass market needs on smartphones today and Holaa! will be of immense help to users, he added. India is one of the largest markets for Stockholm-based Truecaller. About 40 million of its user base and almost half of new additions (over 200,000 new users join daily) are from India. Globally, it has more than 85 million users.

"We already have half a million downloads of the app and we are hopeful of hitting the million mark in the next few weeks. We are aiming for 10 million users," Saxena said. Holaa! is available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Persian and Portuguese on Android devices.

Earlier this year, UK-based New Call Telecom acquired 70 percent stake in Nimbuzz.

Users Can Now Share Google Drive

Google on Thursday announced a new feature for Hangouts video calls that allows users to share Drive files without having to leave the conversation window.

During a Hangouts video call, users will see a Google Drive icon on the bottom right corner of the conversation to select the file that they want to share as a link. Upon selecting the file link, the chat window will also show a preview of the file contents, "even when other participants don't have their chat window open."

"When you're meeting with your colleagues remotely you want to get things done quickly, and face-to-face conversation is still the fastest and simplest way to communicate. Today, #Hangouts is making collaboration even easier by letting you share links to Drive files without ever leaving your conversation,"noted Google for Work on its Google+ post. Earlier this month, Google had also announced that it will let people in India use the Hangouts app for mobile devices and the Hangouts in Gmail to make free or low-cost international voice-calls over the Internet.

"Starting today [November 6], the Hangouts app on your phone will help you stay connected with your family and friends around the world in more ways than ever. Now you can make voice calls to phone numbers outside of India on Android, iOS, and the Web from Hangouts in Gmail," said Google India.

What Does The Future Hold For Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing has been called the future of not only hosting, but also the way we compute. It has transformed the way many businesses operate since it makes applications and technology more accessible. Most importantly, cloud computing helped many businesses with all the great tools and technology that were only available to enterprises that had a ton of money. Even if you don't know what cloud computing is, chances are that you could be using it without your knowledge on a day-to-day basis. Do you use Gmail, or Dropbox, or Google Drive, or iCloud, or any of the millions of websites that run on a cloud server? You are just enjoying all the benefits of cloud computing without your conscience. There had been a lot of advances in cloud computing in the past several years that, one needs to think about the capabilities of this technology. Here we speculate how cloud computing is going to evolve and how it is going to affect the future.

• Hosting

Businesses and individuals are moving their websites and online applications and services to the cloud for a number of reasons. Cloud hosting is extremely cost effective, reduces capital cost for startups, is easily scalable, improves accessibility, quickly deployed, etc. Traditional shared hosting is still the reigning champion of websites for individuals and small businesses. However, things are changing really fast. 81% of the 60% of the enterprises that are already utilizing cloud have reportedly saved money by migrating to the cloud. It is estimated that end-users will spend more than 180 billion U.S. dollars on cloud services before the end of 2015. Cloud hosting is not only attracting large businesses, casual bloggers and small business owners are turning to cloud. 

• Public Cloud

Private cloud is preferred for enterprise applications and to run apps like, CRMs, and ERPs. HCRM, etc., but public cloud is going to grow really fast compared to private cloud. Private cloud although has a lot of advantages and perks of cloud technology, they are still more like using traditional services. With public cloud, people and companies don't have to sign contracts, use shared hardware to reduce cost (utility model), yet don't have to trade-off reliability. Large corporates and enterprises will use private cloud for compliance requirements and security, but as more and more individuals and small businesses migrate to the cloud, we speculate public cloud to grow leaps and bounds compared to private.

• Hard Drive

If you are using some of the top e-mail providers, or social networking services, you could already have a lot of your data on the cloud. You probably have more data on the cloud compared to the hard drive on your computer. This raises an interesting question. Can the cloud actually replace the hard drive? The answer is yes and no. To start with, you can't run a computer with a storage device – one needs an hard disk to store the operating system and other supporting files to run a computer. However, since most of the tasks one performs on the computer is accomplished using a web browser, most of the data could be easily moved to cloud and accessed with the Internet since our mobile devices and computers are tethered to the world wide web 24x7. 

LG Viper LTE Smartphone and USB modem with free talk, text, data for $70

FreedomPop continues to shake up the market with their $0 per month cell phone plans (no, that’s not a typo), and as Black Friday approaches, they’re offering a great deal on a certified pre-owned LTE smartphone and USB modem. Together the pair will run you just $70. Plus, as always with FreedomPop, you’ll never need to pay again to continue getting free cell and internet service. Compared to a traditional phone or internet bill, this can mean huge savings.

The phone on offer here is the LG Viper, an LTE smartphone originally released for Sprint. This phone features a 4-inch 800×480 display, dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM, giving you plenty of power for basic multimedia use or casual gaming. A 5MP camera in the back with an LED flash can take HD shots, and it’s also equipped with a VGA front-shooter for video chats. With Android 4.0, 2GB built-in memory expandable via microSD, GPS, Bluetooth, and even NFC, this will be a capable smartphone for most users.

StoreDot develops tech to recharge phones in 30 seconds

An Israeli company says it has developed technology that can charge a mobile phone in a few seconds and an electric car in minutes, advances that could transform two of the world's most dynamic consumer industries.

Using nano-technology to synthesize artificial molecules, Tel Aviv-based StoreDot says it has developed a battery that can store a much higher charge more quickly, in effect acting like a super-dense sponge to soak up power and retain it. 
 While the prototype is currently far too bulky for a mobile phone, the company believes it will be ready by 2016 to market a slim battery that can absorb and deliver a day's power for a smartphone in just 30 seconds. 

"These are new materials, they have never been developed before," said Doron Myersdorf, the founder and chief executive of StoreDot, whose investors include Russian billionaire and Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich. 
 The innovation is based around the creation of "nanodots", which StoreDot describes as bio-organic peptide molecules. Nanodots alter the way a battery behaves to allow the rapid absorption and, critically, the retention of power.

An app that automatically updates your phonebook

Tired of keying in the details everytime someone in your contact list changes phone numbers or address? Help is here. "6Degrees", a startup, has developed a self-updating phonebook for your smartphone that verifies and updates contact details on its own. 

Founded by Niranjan Rao, a former Singapore-based investment banker, and Arun Samudrala, a Bangalore-based engineer, 6degrees is like a social network within your phone book. 

"We want to create your own private universe of relationships within your phone," said Rao. "In a few months, we will look for investors who can bring us industry insights as well," he said. 

With this app, users can update their contact details and share it with trusted friends and the friend's phone automatically updates the new number. People will be able to access all connections from across networks in a private manner. 
 6degrees recently bagged a deal from Lava, maker of Xolo handsets, to make 6degrees the default phone book in its mobiles.

How to speed up your laggy Android phone

All the tips provided are easily reversible. So if you think that something is not right, you can always roll back to default. Moreover, some of the tips may only work on the recent versions of Android. Before getting started with the tricks, make sure that you Enable the 'Developer Option'. To do that, go to Settings > About > tap the “build number” 7 times.

1. In Settings, enable "Force GPU Rendering". This offloads some of the work from your CPU to your graphics chip. Older devices should see a noticeable improvement. Know that it may have an impact on the battery life, so switch it back off if your battery is draining too fast.

2. In the same Developer options, tap the Window & Transition Animation scale and the Animator duration scale and choose “Animation off”. This should remove all animation from the UI, making it feel a bit faster.

3. Lastly, you can also try switching the runtime from 'Dalvik' to 'ART' again from the Developer options. Again, this may cause a drain on your battery life and a few apps may malfunction, so switch back to Dalvik if you’re not satisfied.

4. Put yourself in a habit of regularly backing up your image gallery, including your photos, videos, screenshots, WhatsApp media etc. and clearing them from your phone.

5. Go to Settings -> Storage and see what else is eating your internal memory. Try to keep it as free as possible. Uninstall an app or game you don’t use anymore. And while you’re there, you can also try clearing ‘Cached Data’ to potentially fix some of the misbehaving apps that are slowing your phone down. Remember, you may have to log into some of the apps after doing this and ironically, sometimes it causes some apps to lag at first (because it has to re-cache), so don’t do it often.

6. If your phone comes with custom software instead of stock Android, you can disable some of the apps that the phone maker has put in which are of no use to you. Go to Settings -> Apps -> Swipe to ‘All’ and start looking. For example, if you have a Samsung phone, you can disable S-Voice if you use Google Now. Or you can disable S-Note or S-Planner if you use Google Keep or Google Calendar. Also, restart your phone once in a while to see if that helps.

7. If you use multiple Google accounts, go to Settings -> Accounts -> Google and uncheck all those activities are not relevant to a particular Google account. For example, there may be no need to sync Google Fit or Newsstand data from a company Google account that you may have configured on your phone.

8. Use a lightweight launcher like Nova, Apex or even the Google Now Launcher if your phone comes with a UI that’s bloated by the phone maker.

9. If your phone has an SD card slot and is low on internal memory, consider moving apps and games (that can be moved) to the SD card. Also, spend a few hundred rupees extra in buying a higher class SD card that’s faster.

10. If none of this works, then try a factory reset. It’s kind of like formatting and reinstalling Windows on a PC. You’ll have to backup things that aren’t saved to the cloud, like your game saves, or text messages. But, this is a sure-fire way to get your phone up to speed again.

5G services for super-fast internet in the offing

Researchers are now close to finding how software-defined cellular networking might be used to give smartphone users the next generation of super-superfast broadband - 5G.

A collaboration between NEC Electronics Samsung and several academic centres in China and Iran have assessed the latest developments aimed at 5G systems.They have proposed their own novel end-to-end (E2E) software-defined cellular network (SDCN) architecture which, they say, offers flexibility, scalability, agility and efficiency.Moreover, it will be sustainable for providers as well as profitable.

The team is currently building a demonstration system that will allow them to utilise several promising technologies in their architecture for 5G including cloud computing, network virtualisation, network functions virtualisation and dynamic service chaining.

“The approach could overcome bandwidth shortage problems, improve quality of service so avoiding delays and data loss, as well as reducing the vast number of error-prone network nodes needed for such a system,” explained Ming Lei of Samsung Research and Development Institute China.

As yet, there is no single standard for 5G although various systems are being touted based on rebuilding the cellular networks to be super-efficient and exploiting different frequencies with their capacity for greater data rates. The hope is to be able to achieve download speeds of perhaps 10 Gbits/second.

Ming Lei is working with Lei Jiang of NEC Laboratories in Beijing and colleagues at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in Chengdu, Beijing Jiaotong University and the University of Kurdistan.

Viber launches Public Chats in India

These chats are live discussions between celebrities and personalities that Viber users can follow. Anyone on Viber can follow as many of these chats as they like on their mobile device. Conversations are multi-media and include text, photos, audio, video, stickers, web links and more. Users can invite friends to follow the Public Chats that interest them, and can share content.

"We have the highest number of users from India. Of our present 460 million users, 33 million are from India, followed by the US, Russia, Brazil and the UK," Mark Hardy, chief marketing officer, Viber said. Indian cricketers Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have a group which already has more than 5,000 followers.

Viber is available across a multitude of platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry 10, Windows, Mac, Windows 8, Linux, Symbian, Nokia S40, Bada, BlackBerry 7 and is used in over 193 countries

Facebook launches new chatting application

Facebook launched Tuesday a new chatting application worldwide called "Rooms" which simulates traditional internet chatting rooms, enabling users to chat with strangers on specific topics.

"Rooms", which has been active in the US since last October, will be available in Spanish, French and German, in addition to English, for devices that operate iOS software, and soon will be available on android devices as well. Josh Miller, product manager of Facebook Rooms, told Efe news agency that they discovered that personal interests may not amuse friends, and people generally do not feel comfortable sharing their interests on Facebook or Instagram.

 The new app, created by the Facebook Creative Labs Unit, aims to connect people with common interests so they can exchange ideas and resources, and is inspired on internet forums, Miller said. "Rooms" is intended to be a tool to share ideas and helpful resources for hobbies, rather than a platform to make friends.