Ratan Tata wanted to sell TCS to IBM: Cyrus Mistry

Tata Sons' ousted Chairman Cyrus Mistry claimed in a letter on Tuesday that Ratan Tata wanted to sell the company’s “crown jewel” Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to IBM. Ratan Tata had even approached JRD Tata but he refused to discuss the deal. "It was also a near death experience for TCS at the hands of Ratan Tata," the letter said.

Fake Google redirecting users to a spam website

A Google imposter is redirecting the users to a spam website which may potentially harm a user's computer and says 'Trump, you did it!'. The domain name for fake Google contains the Latin letter for capital 'G' instead of the English letter 'G' used in genuine Google web address. Google has published a fix to eliminate the spam.

Apple to stop making wireless routers: Report

After a recent announcement to exit the external computer monitor business, Apple is said to stop making wireless routers. The company began shutting down the wireless router team over the past year and shifted its engineers to other product development groups. Notably, Apple has not pushed any update for its wireless routers since 2013.

20-yr-old's software gives tour of five star hotel suites

A 20-year-old student, Rachana Bagde has created a software called 'G for Gestures', which uses hand gestures to give a tour of five-star hotel suites in virtual reality. The software along with a body sensor are equipped with a system, allowing guests to explore the interior and outside view of different suites. The starting price of the software is ₹60,000.

Mark Zuckerberg sells $95 mn Facebook shares for charity

To fund his family's philanthropic initiative, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week sold his company shares worth $95 million for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan in December 2015 pledged to donate 99% of their Facebook shares to the initiative, which funds companies working in the health, science and education space.

Facebook testing new feature to find nearby Wi-Fi

Facebook is currently testing a new feature with select users on its app that helps them to find Wi-Fi hotspots near their location. The option is available under the hamburger menu, which includes Pages, Nearby Friends, Nearby Places and other options. Previously, Facebook had asked business Pages to list Wi-Fi locations at their physical addresses.

Time has come to ramp up offline sales: Xiaomi India head

Electronics major Xiaomi India's director Manu Jain said that with nearly 90% of its sales in India from online marketplaces, time has come to "ramp up offline sales." In this regard, Xiaomi has introduced a new model of distribution called direct-to-retailer, which eliminates intermediaries, Jain added. Notably, Xiaomi reached 20 lakh units' sales in September quarter for the first time.

Apple to replace iPhone 6s battery for free to fix shutdown

Apple has acknowledged some iPhone 6s handsets are shutting down unexpectedly and said the batteries of the affected devices will be replaced for free. Apple believes that only some devices manufactured between September and October 2015, have been affected. Notably, some iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are facing 'touch disease' that causes a flickering grey bar and reduces touchscreen responsiveness.

Edge browser safer than Google Chrome, Firefox: Microsoft

Microsoft has introduced a new set of Windows Tips that inform Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox users on Windows 10 that the company's own Edge is a “safer” web browser. The new Windows Tips for Windows 10 users began in early November. In July, Microsoft prompted its users that Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox drains their laptop’s battery.

Amazon adds X-ray feature to iOS app to 'see' inside boxes

Amazon has added a 'Package X-ray' feature to its iPhone app to let users 'see' what's inside their packages without opening them. Users can only scan the barcode on the packages which have been ordered using their Amazon account to view a list of all its contents. Amazon claims this will help users keep track of packaged Christmas presents.

Company loses ₹70L after eagles destroy its drones mid-air

An Australian mine surveying company has lost around ₹70 lakh after eagles knocked down nine of its drones used for the aerial survey of mines. The company painted the drones to look like baby eagles and carried out nearly 50 successful drone flights. However, the eagles soon figured out the truth and started attacking the drones again.

Facebook announces its first stock buyback for $6 billion

Facebook on Friday announced that it will buy back $6 billion (over ₹40,000 crore) in shares in its first-ever stock repurchase. The social media giant's shares rose 1% in after-hours trading following the news. Among the top 10 US technology companies, ranked by cash and marketable securities, Facebook is reportedly the only one that has not bought back stock yet.

Zuckerberg details plan to tackle fake news in Facebook post

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a post explaining what the social media company is doing to tackle the issue of fake news on its platform on Saturday."Historically, we have relied on our community to help us understand what is fake and what is not," he wrote. Zuckerberg also listed active projects like "third party verification" and removing "financially motivated spam".

Apple limiting download speeds of some iPhone 7s: Report

A Bloomberg report claims that Apple is purposely limiting the performance of iPhone 7 devices, resulting in loss of download speed. The iPhone 7 versions with a Qualcomm modem chip can download data at 600 mbps, while those with an Intel modem have a speed of 450 mbps. The move will reportedly ensure a uniform iPhone experience across all devices.

Infosys invests ₹14.5 crore in Danish AI start-up

Infosys has invested ₹14.5 crore from its “innovation fund” in UNSILO, a Danish artificial intelligence start-up on advanced text analysis. This is Infosys’ 11th investment in a start-up from its $500 million innovation fund and fourth in 2016. "We will partner with UNSILO to bring their artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to our... clients, " an Infosys official said.

Company creates system to help pilot's brain control a plane

USA's Honeywell Aerospace has modified a plane which enables it to be operated with a neuro-transmitting elastic cap, worn over the head by the pilot. The pilot wears the cap, which houses 32 electrodes, and manoeuvres the plane by focusing on the direction symbols on a screen. The brain's electrical activity is transmitted to the plane's control system.

Man makes touchscreen mirror that texts, play movies

Designer Rafael Dymek has made a smart fully touchscreen mirror based on iOS 10, that is able to text, play songs, movies, browse the internet and even order an Uber ride. Called the 'Apple Mirror', the mirror shuts itself off after 45 seconds of inactivity and shows reflections like a regular mirror.

Pixel's ₹3,400 case shows live images from Google Earth

Google has launched a ₹3,400 ($50) phone case for its Pixel handset, which shows live images from Google Earth on the handset. From the ice formations of Antarctica to the beaches of the South Pacific, the case sets select images as wallpapers. A button on the wallpaper lets users explore the location in more detail on the Google Maps app.

Basket made to charge phones and keep bread warm

American baked goods brand Sister Schubert's has created an electronic bread basket to keep its contents warm and simultaneously charge phones. The basket can be used to charge up to five devices at a time using USB ports. While pricing for the basket has not been revealed, it will be part of the company's 'Make All Dinners Warm' campaign.

Huawei announces new tablets with 3 year old software

Chinese electronics company Huawei on Thursday announced two new tablets that will ship with Android's three year old KitKat software. The 7-inch and 9.6-inch 'MediaPad T1' tablets will cost $99 (₹6,750) and $159 (₹10,800) respectively. The devices have only 1 GB of RAM and an expandable storage of up to 32 GB.

Reliance Global launches international calling app

Reliance Global Call has launched an international calling app "RGC India" which allows direct-dialling of contacts, doing away with the need to enter toll-free or PIN numbers. It also announced an introductory offer wherein customers can avail talk-time worth ₹200 on sign-up with ₹100. This is available to mobile and landline users of India on networks like Reliance and Airtel.

₹340 device hacks password-protected computers in 30 seconds

American security researcher Samy Kamkar has built a ₹340 device named 'PoisonTap', that he claims can get access to a password-protected computer in 30 seconds. The device uses a free software and a Raspberry Pi Zero microcomputer. On connecting the device to a computer's USB port, the lock screen is bypassed and a backdoor to access the computer is created.

Google starts showing nearest ATM on its homepage

In the wake of the government's demonetisation move, Google India has added an 'Find an ATM near you' feature on its homepage that tells users the nearest ATMs from their location. The feature, available just below the Google Search bar, only tells users the directions to reach the nearest ATM and does not provide any information on the cash availability.

Telangana signs MoU with Microsoft for digital services

Hyderabad, Nov 16 (PTI) Telangana government today signed an MoU with Microsoft Corporation India wherein Microsoft will help the government to explore cloud, machine learning and mobile-based solutions to improve citizen services, education, healthcare and agriculture in the state.

At the MoU signing event, Telangana IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said, "Telangana government believes that ICT is the key to building not only a stronger economy but also an efficient and effective governance system."

"Through this partnership of ours with Microsoft, we are confident about bringing in advanced solutions pertaining to our initiatives under Digital Telangana programme." Ranjan added.

Microsoft India (R&D) Managing Director Anil Bhansali said, "Over the past year, we have experimented with cloud, mobile and machine learning based solutions for better citizen connect as well as to help students, farmers and patients in India."

"We are delighted to bring many of those learning to Telangana and explore new use for these world-class technologies."As per the MoU, Microsoft India will work with Telangana government to support the development of cloud and mobile-based solutions and support the use of machine learning and advanced visualisation to help solve challenges in the fields of education, agriculture and healthcare, according to an release.

"Telangana government has been an ardent promoter of ICT solutions, particularly in the fields of agriculture, citizen service delivery, education and healthcare. Having crossed the magical figure of 7 crore online transactions through MeeSeva, the government is miles ahead of other states with its robust citizen service delivery platform," added Jayesh.

The State has also launched an innovative ICT enabled solution for government schools called TS-CLASS (Telangana State Computer Literacy and Skills in Schools) to revolutionize the way students are taught.

Microsoft joins Linux 15 yrs after ex-CEO called it ‘cancer’

Once archenemies, Microsoft has blown everyone away by joining Linux; and in a surprising move joins Google as well. Microsoft has Satya Nadella written all over it now. It no longer is a Steve Ballmer company. At the Microsoft Connect conference for software developers in New York, the company’s executive vice president Scott Guthrie along with Linux Foundation president Jim Zemlin, announced that Microsoft is joining Linux. This news might have been unthinkable a decade back, as both the companies had completely different set of beliefs. As closed was Microsoft with its Windows OS, its nemesis changed the game with an open-source OS.

The tech giant also announced that Google will join a committee of the independent .NET Foundation too. Google is Microsoft’s rival in applications and cloud services. The .NET Foundation promotes the usage of the company’s .NET software development tech. The Foundation had other member companies like Samsung and RedHat. Google has earlier brought tools in order to help .NET developers to work using Google Cloud Platform. The late decision might be a result of Microsoft’s previous CEO Steve Ballmer viewing open source software like Linux an existential threat. Ballmer, once in the year 2001, called Linux as a ‘cancer’. He said, “Linux is cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches.”

These moves by Microsoft, clearly indicate the big change from Steve Ballmer to Satya Nadella. Since then Microsoft has invested in a lot of non-Microsoft technologies, even joining the Eclipse Foundation, which is an important open-source institution. Interesting, after Microsoft softened its stance on open-source, this year even Ballmer said that now he loves Linux and even congratulated the current CEO. It is an undeniable fact that developers love to work on Linux platform, and though late, Microsoft is finally realising the need to join it, and want them to work on Microsoft Azure Cloud. Linux is an open source software which essentially means free or almost free, while Windows a proprietary software package costs money.

Microsoft partners with Elon Musk-backed AI non-profit

On its own front, Microsoft has been keen to get more folks developing AI, enough to recently open-source the deep learning tools it used to build Skype Translate and Cortana for users to train their own AI. It's also opened its arms to other tech companies, partnering with Google, Amazon, IBM and Facebook in a coalition to trumpet the benefits of AI and agree on best practices. The initiative left out the Elon Musk and Peter Thiel-backed OpenAI, a research project dedicated to democratizing artificial intelligence. But today, the non-profit announced a separate team-up with Microsoft to run large-scale experiments on the software giant's Azure cloud platform.

Azure's open-sourced tools appealed to the non-profit, as well as its computation-boosting Batch and machine learning capabilities, Microsoft said in a blog post. The partnership also nets OpenAI early use of the software giant's GPU-based Azure N-series virtual machines, which will be opened for general use next month.   

It's not the first AI partnership, nor the only one to rely on cloud-based systems to run computations, but Microsoft is devoting plenty of development to boost Azure's appeal. While their current N-series virtual machines run on Nvidia Tesla GPUs, those will be replaced by next-generation Pascal-based GPUs in the near future.    

Microsoft is also announcing its new Azure Bot Service, which aims to let developers speed up development of bots within the software giant's Bot Framework and manage them in a server less Azure environment, according to Microsoft.

Asia’s most valuable tech company posts $1.5bn in net profit

Tencent, Asia’s most valuable tech company, posted another healthy profit thanks to its growing mobile messaging app WeChat and its mobile games business.

The company reported a net profit of RMB 10.6 billion ($1.5 billion), up 43 percent year-on-year, on revenue of RMB 40.4 billion ($6 billion), up 52 percent, for Q3 2016. That was around analyst’s estimates of RMB 10.9 billion profit on revenue of RMB 39.3 billion, according to an S&P Capital IQ poll via Wall Street Journal.

Tencent just turned 18, a milestone it celebrating by giving employees $220 million in shares, yet it is best known for WeChat, its blockbuster messaging app known as Weixin in China, which was created just five years ago.

WeChat now counts 846 million users per month, which is up 30 percent year-on-year and a decent increase on 806 million MAUs in the previous quarter. WeChat pulled its weigh on the business side by helping Tencent’s advertising business, its fastest-growing monetization stream, continue positive growth.

Total online ad revenue came in at RMB 7.5 billion, up 51 percent on Q2 2015, with “performance marketing” sales jumping by 83 percent to hit RMB 4.4 billion. Tencent said advertising in the timeline of WeChat, its mobile news app and revenue from official accounts for brands inside WeChat, were the key drivers.

Mobile games remain Tencent’s biggest revenue generator and a primary focus for investment, as evidenced by its acquisition of SuperCell, the maker of hugely popular Clash of Clans, in June.

Tencent’s mobile games business accounted for RMB 9.9 billion of revenue in Q3 2016, that’s up 87 percent annually and a large chunk of the RMB 18.2 billion that Tencent’s total gaming business — PC and mobile — clocked in the quarter. PC gaming remains a large part of that total, but its revenues grew just 10 percent year-on-year.

Earlier this year, Tencent revealed the first figures for its WePay mobile payments service, which sits inside WeChat and was seeing $50 billion in bank transfers flow across its platform per month. The company didn’t break out specific payment data this time around, but it did say that WePay and its cloud service pushed “revenues from our others businesses” up 348 percent to RMB 5 billion in the quarter.

“Our smart phone games and social performance advertising businesses reported above-industry YoY revenue growth rates and continued to generate healthy margins. Meanwhile, our ecosystem infrastructure services such as online payment and cloud-based services saw significant progress in adoption and usage,” Chairman and CEO Pony Ma said in a statement.

WhatsApp launches free video calling for all users

WhatsApp messenger on Monday officially launched a free video calling feature on its platform for iOS, Android and Windows users. The option will be available under the WhatsApp call button and will also allow switching between front and rear cameras. WhatsApp, which was bought by social media giant Facebook in 2014 for $22 billion, claims over a billion monthly users.

China threatens iPhone sales cut if Trump begins trade war

In a Communist party-controlled newspaper, China today threatened to cut iPhone sales in the country if US President-elect Donald Trump wrecks Sino-US trade. “Making things difficult for China politically will do him no good", it added. During his campaign, Trump repeatedly lashed out at China and said to impose 45% tariffs on Chinese imports.

Nike's 5-storey NY store to have hi-tech basketball court

Nike is set to open a five-storey store in New York, which will have a hi-technology basketball court with sensors to capture body movements and display those on a big screen. The store's escalators will have LED panels to display information and special messages. It will also have 3D-printed decorations, personalisation studio for on-demand orders, and self-lacing shoes.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max with 4,100 mAh battery to launch on Nov 9

Asus will announce its Zenfone 3 Max smartphone with a big 4,100 mAh battery on November 9. Asus Zenfone 3 Max is expected to feature a metal unibody with 2.5D curved glass design. Asus Zenfone 3 Max will be an addition to company’s Zenfone 3 series, which comprises of smartphones such as Asus Zenfone 3, Zenfone 3 Ultra and Zenfoen 3 Deluxe. The battery the Zenfone 3 Max is said to provide 38 days of standby time and 17 hours of talktime. Asus Zenfone 3 Max will support reverse charging and will double up as a power bank to charge other devices as well. It will support 4G VoLTE.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max will feature a 5.2-inch full HD display. It is said to be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 with Adreno 505 graphics performance. It will come with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory (expandable up to 128GB via microSD card). Asus is expected to launch another variant of Zenfone 3 Max on the basis of storage.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max will sport a 16MP primary camera with PDAF, laser autofocus and f/2.0 aperture. The front camera is 8MP and comes with Beautification modes. Both front and rear camera will be able to shoot videos in Full HD resolution. Asus Zenfone 3 Max will feature a rear fingerprint scanner. It will support wi-fi 802.11 b/g/n, wi-fi Direct, Bluetooth v4.1, GPS and AGPS.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max will run Android v6.0.1 Marshmallow with ZenUI 3.0 OS on top. It is a dual SIM smartphone that comes with a hybrid SIM slot. It supports micro and nano SIM cards. The Zenfone 3 Max will be available in titanium gray, glacier silver and sand gold colour variants.

New Virtual Reality System Lets You 'Feel' Rain

Washington: Disney Research has developed a 360-degree virtual reality application using a unique chair to provide full body sensations that enables users to add customisable "feel effects" such as falling rain or a beating heart.

"Virtual reality has seen a renaissance in recent years as advancements in computer graphics, computing platforms and the seamless flow of information between hardware and software have come together in a powerful way," said Ali Israr, senior research engineer at Disney Research Pittsburgh in the US.

"Our team is working to make VR haptic sensations just as rich as the 360-degree visual media now available," he said. 

"Current VR systems provide 'buzz-like' haptic sensations through hand controllers. But technology exists for much richer sensations," Mr Israr said.

"We've created a framework that would enable users to select from a wide range of meaningful sensations that can be adjusted to complement the visual scene and to play them through a variety of haptic feedback devices," he said.

The haptic playback and authoring plug-in developed by the researchers connects a VR game engine to a custom haptic device. It allows users to create, personalise and associate haptic feedback to the events triggered in the VR game engine.

The haptic definition app, called VR360HD, was developed and tested using a consumer headset and Disney Research's haptic chair.

The chair features a grid of six vibrotactile actuators in its back and two subwoofers, or "shakers," in the seat and back.

The grid produces localised moving sensations in the back, while the subwoofers shake two different regions of the body and can create a sensation of motion.

Users were able to select from a library of feel effects, also assembled and tested by Disney Research.

These feel effects are identified with common terms such as rain, pulsing or rumbling, and can be adjusted so that people can distinguish, for instance, between a light sprinkle and a heavy downpour.