New Asia servers to make Google services 30% faster

 Indian internet users can expectYouTube videos to load faster and Google to throw upsearch results quicker, thanks to the US-based company's data centre in Asia going operational this year.

Work on these centres - Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong - began in 2011. While the Singapore facility is expected to be completed in early 2013, the Taiwan one is scheduled to be up and running by the second half. Google, which is spending about $300 million (about Rs 1,600 crore now) on the centres, has not yet given a clear timeframe for completing the Hong Kong facility.

"Internet connectivity speed in India is not very high. These data centres will be crucial to this market due to its proximity," said Lalitesh Katragadda, country head, India Products at Google.

The proximity of the data centres could result in Google services becoming 30% faster, according to Raj Gopal AS, managing director at Bangalore-based NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Services. Google, which began to scout for suitable locations in Asia in 2007, considered sites in Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, India and Vietnam. Outside Asia, Google has seven data centres in the US, and one each in Finland, Belgium and Ireland.

Katragadda blamed the country's hot weather for not choosing India as a location. Google, which until recently has been extremely secretive about its data centre locations, has now become more open to discussing details.

Typically, countries located close to data centres enjoy faster access to data on the internet. According to a report from web-based content delivery firm Akamai Technologies, India is ranked 112th globally in internet speed.

Google's Katragadda acknowledged that some Google services such as its video sharing website YouTube and social networking service Google Hangout cannot be accessed at optimal speeds now. With the new centres, time taken to access these services will reduce dramatically. He hoped this will result in increased adoption of Google services.

India is one of the largest markets for Google, with over 100 million users. Google enjoys a share of over 95% of India's internet search market, according to research firm StatCounter. Over the next three years, Google expects 500 million internet users from emerging markets to come online as against just about 15 million from the United States.

According to web analytics firm ComScore, an average Indian user spends about 2.5 hours every day on Google websites, including Gmail, Google+, YouTube etc. YouTube, which has 35 million users in India, accounted for the highest share of time spent on any Google property in 2011. YouTube videos account for close to 50% of all online videos watched in India.

"More people from India are coming online every day and this is an important market as Google looks to bring the next one billion online," Katragadda added. "We plan to invest disproportionately in India in the coming months and years."

Predictions for Google’s Android in 2013: Freedom for All!

At the start of 2012 the folks at Google were seeing their beloved Android mobile operating system being used on more iPhone clones than we’d care to discuss – near the turn-over to 2013, big manufacturers like Samsung and HTC have made their own hero lines the likes of which Android has never known. What we saw in 2012 was recognition of the model that has worked for Apple extremely well since all the way back in 2007 – a focus on the ecosystem rather than on the individual specifications of any one device. This will continue in a very big way through 2013 with manufacturers holding up a single torch – like the Motorola RAZR brand – to keep themselves lit up brightly.

Motorola will continue to produce devices exclusive to Verizon with the DROID RAZR name attached: this branding has kept them in the limelight for the past couple of years. Samsung will stick with the Galaxy branding (as they have for more than just a couple of years) and will continue to run with the branding (and with the iPhone mocking) through the foreseeable future with both the Samsung Galaxy IV and the Samsung Galaxy Note III. HTC brought the fire in 2012 with their HTC One series (starting with the hero HTC One X) but didn’t exactly see the massive sales they’d hoped for – because of this, HTC’s strategy for 2013 remains a bit hazy.

LG made two fantastic decisions – or were granted the ability to go through with them, however it ended up going – the first being a team-up with Qualcomm for the Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor for their Optimus G smartphone. While they’ve not reported extensive numbers for the sales of this machine quite yet, it’s clear that the ultimate victory was the modified version of the handset in the Google Nexus 4. This machine has most of the features that the Optimus G does, but rounds its corners and makes its Android perfectly pure with a Google-only vanilla flavoring – this means that LG didn’t modify the software for their own, just Google. Because of the feature set and the surprisingly low cost off-contract this device came with (though a T-Mobile version does exist, mind you), it’s been a massive hit (or supply blunder, however you want to see it) compared to the rest of the Nexus devices Google has released in its lineup history.

That machine came with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean+, that being an updated version of the same Android revealed earlier this year – that was also code-named Jelly Bean. This version had a collection of new features that included quick-access to basic settings as well as connectivity that didn’t even exist yet for most users – wireless projection with Miracast.

In 2013 we’ll continue to see the change-over from a specifications race in hardware to a more solid offering in software with brand ecosystems at the heart of the race. Samsung took this battle to heart in 2012 with the Samsung Galaxy S III – see the Chris Davies article by the name of The Galaxy S III is Samsung’s Coming of Age to see what this release was all about. More evidence that the Galaxy Note and S lines are doing stellar: the response to flip covers and TecTiles given away by the OEM for free.

Manufacturers aside, Google will be making at least one big unique push to stand out on their own as a force in mobile. Not just as a creator of Android will Google be pushing, but as a service provider for mobile devices. Google has confirmed their once-axed phone service plans already, and we’ve had Chris Davies’ column making it all too clear, as well: “A Google plan to kill carriers with wi-fi is all too believable”. Google won’t purchase T-Mobile as our good pals at [Android Community] suggest, they’ll continue to tie close bonds between themselves and wi-fi hotspot companies – or something to that effect – that’ll allow their smartphones to function completely independent of the mobile carriers.

See the column “Smart device specs are over: Long live the Ecosystem!” for a good look at 2013.

Making Android smartphones (and tablets) affordable by everyone in the world will continue to be Google’s goal through 2013, rest assured.

Predictions for Google’s Android in 2013: Freedom for All! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

iOS 6‘s ‘Do Not Disturb‘ Not Shutting Off Automatically on New Year‘s Day

      

         iOS 6 users who use Apple's scheduled 'Do Not Disturb' feature may find that their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch hasn't automatically disabled the feature on New Year's morning. The issue was reported on Whirlpool forums as well as our own MacRumors forums. The 'Do Not Disturb' feature silences calls, alerts and notifications when it is enabled.

 Users may optionally schedule 'Do Not Disturb' to activate between specific hours. This allows you to automatically disable calls and notifications while you sleep.

 It's this scheduling feature that appears to be misbehaving on New Year's Day. MacRumors reader Spacesamurai posted about his experience:I am in Japan so it is 2013, and I am finding that my iOS devices (iPhone 4 and iPad 2) are showing 'Do Not Disturb' even though it is outside of the time I set for them. Not sure if this is related to the new year.

Reloading the devices does not help and the software is up-to-date.Spacesamurai's experience has been echoed by others. Apple has had other bugs in the past related to New Year's day. In years past, Apple has had issues with alarms not going off into the new year. Fortunately, the 'Do Not Disturb' feature does not disable alarms set with Apple's built-in Clock app.

Netbooks to go extinct in 2013

I always thought it was a combination of people wanting or needing new computer and an economy that meant they couldn’t afford normal notebooks that led those who would normally purchase notebooks to the netbook world for a few years. There were a few people out there who purchased the little machines simply because they were tiny and they wanted portability. The netbook also made a nice first computer for younger users.

You could still find few netbooks in 2012, especially earlier in the year but they were nowhere near as popular as they had been in years past. If you’re a fan of the netbook, the little machines are going extinct in 2013. The Guardian reports that Asus announced yesterday that it would not make any more of its Eee netbooks in 2013. During 2012, only Asus and Acer were making netbooks.

Acer also won’t make any more netbooks for 2013. Undoubtedly, there will be a few netbook sales this year as retailers both online and in the real world cut prices to clear remaining inventories. Once the machines Asus and Acer have are constructed are sold, there will be no more. The demise of netbooks is blamed on several factors.

Those factors included an uptick in the economy leading people back to more expensive and more powerful machines such as ultrabooks and traditional laptops. The incredible popularity of tablets such as the iPad and Android offerings are probably the biggest nail in the coffin of the netbook. In 2010 and 2011 netbook sales steadily declined from a high of over 2 million units in Q1 of 2010 to only about 750,000 units sold in Q4 2011.

Story Timeline

·         ASUS Eee PC Flare previews 2012 netbook offerings

·         HP Mini 1104 insists the netbook isn't dead

·         Acer Aspire One 725 netbook packs AMD Fusion

·         Toshiba discontinuing netbooks in the US

[via Guardian]

HCL Learning enters Africa

HCL Learning, the education division of HCL Infosystems, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a South African educational firm Spatial Data Holdings, to launch their products in five African countries including South Africa. Through this agreement the company has already started selling its educational content , tablets anddongles in Africa. The countries are South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia.

"We are mapping content to African educational boards and also modifying them to adapt to dialects and accents prevailing in these countries. The focus of content is primarily on English, Maths and Science," said Rothin Bhattacharyya, EVP Marketing , Strategy and Corporate Development at HCL Infosystems.

While the first wave of institutions driving this initiative in Africa are primarily non-governmental organisations (NGOs), governments are soon expected to step in. "Right now, NGOs and relatively expensive schools are taking up such solutions in Africa. We expect government buying to become big next year," said Bhattacharyya.

At the same time, government laptop buying remains a big source of growth in India. "We will be finishing this week our shipping requirements for the Tamil Nadu project worth about Rs 270 crore. In UP, we have been shortlisted for laptop project and have also applied for their tablet initiative. Governments in Punjab, Goa and Assam, among others, also have similar initiatives declared in their manifestoes," said Bhattacharyya.

HCL Learning, started three years ago, had so far been selling its products mainly in a business-to-business (B2B) fashion but now the company is going business-to-consumer (B2C). It plans to sell its tablets and dongles through more than 600 outlets nationwide in the coming few weeks.

"Introducing dongles allows us to reach on all the 50-60 million computing devices present in Indian market. We will be selling our content and services through retail channel as well as through our longstanding relationships with schools," said Bhatacharyya.

Soon, unlock your car with your NFC-enabled smartphone

Keep misplacing your car keys? Just wave your smartphone to unlock the door!
Engineers at South Korean automobile majorHyundai have invented a new system that will allow your smartphone to double as your car keys, and the technology will be made available to buyers within two years.

Rather than using Bluetooth, the system by Hyundai uses wireless Near Field Communication ( NFC), allowing you to lock and unlock the car by waving your phone over a small tag on the car window.

Inside the car, you place the phone on a pad in the centre console that wirelessly charges it while the content is synced and streamed to the car's infotainment system and touchscreen.

The system can also store in-car preferences, including radio stations, seating positions and even mirror adjustment - with multiple profiles able to be saved for different drivers.

The system was demonstrated on a concept version of Hyundai's popular i30 in Germany.

Hyundai said developing the system was part of the carmaker's aim of producing technology for the mainstream consumer, website carsguide.com.au reported.

"The Connectivity Concept showcases Hyundai's philosophy of making tomorrow's technology accessible to a wide range of customers," Hyundai Motor Europe chief operating officer Allan Rushforth said.

"With this technology, Hyundai is able to harness the all-in-one functionality of existing smartphone technology and integrating it into everyday driving in a seamless fashion," Rushforth said.

Industrial sites in Iran under cyber attack

           An internet virus attacked computers at industrial sites in southern Iran, in an apparent extension of a covert cyber war that initially targeted the country's nuclear facilities, an Iranian official said.

Iran, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, has tightened online security since its uranium enrichment centrifuges were hit in 2010 by the Stuxnet computer worm, which Tehran believes was planted by arch-adversaries Israel or the United States.

The unit tasked with fighting cyber attacks, the Passive Defence Organisation, said a virus had infected several sites in Hormozgan province in recent months but was neutralised.

"Enemies are constantly attacking Iran's industrial units through Internet networks in order to create disruptions," Ali Akbar Akhavan, head of the Hormozgan branch of the organisation, was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency on Tuesday.

"This virus has even penetrated some manufacturing industries in Hormozgan province, but with timely measures and the cooperation of skilled hackers in the province, the progress of this virus was halted," Akhavan said.

"As an example, the Bandar Abbas Tavanir Co., a producer of electricity in the province and even adjacent provinces, has been the target of Internet attacks in recent months," he said.

Bandar Abbas is the capital of Hormozgan province on Iran's southern coast and home to an oil refinery and container port.

Israeli officials have threatened military action against Iranian nuclear facilities if Western sanctions on Tehran's banking and oil sectors do not persuade the Islamic Republic to shelve its disputed atomic programme.

Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran says it is enriching uranium only for civilian energy.

Iranian authorities said in April that a computer virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island - which handles the vast majority of Iran's crude oil exports - but the terminal had remained operational.

Cyber attackers also slowed Iran's Internet and attacked its offshore oil and gas platforms this year, Iranian officials have said.