Improve Internet Download Speed of Smartphones/Tablets Through Data Tracking

Relevance of data usage tracking Smartphone apps to increase internet download speed:Special applications made for Smartphones and Tablets, often called 'Apps', consume data during download and after installation. Even if your data plan is unlimited and you have high speed internet, you may find your phone slows down once you've exceeded a data threshold set by your phone provider or if you're downloading more than one app at a time. One way to avoid downloading slowdowns on your phone is bytracking how much data you’re actually using on your phone, allowing you to pinpoint the problem.Mobile Data Tracking:Various data tracking applications are available for installation on Smartphones. You'll need an app that is made to work on your phone's mobile platform. Once you've downloaded and installed the application, you can view data usage consumption by app and associated activities.
For example, a tracking app can show you how much data the game you installed used to download. The app will also show how much data the game used while you played it and while you saved your game or connected with other players. If the game updates, you'll be able to see how much data it used to download and install the updates and how often it updates. You can track data usage for all your apps over a period of time, such as one month, to get a clearer idea of what apps use the most data and why.
Improving Download Speeds:Once you know what applications consume the most data, you can remove the apps or tailor your downloading schedule. For example, if you know you have an app that uses a lot of data while running, shut that app down before you download anything. Look forpared down, more streamlined apps that do the same thing as your data-hogging apps. You may be able to find another app for your phone that does the same thing as the app you wants to remove without using as much data.
Try downloading apps wirelessly, using a high speed internet connection instead of using your mobile internet connection to download the app. You'll still need mobileinternet service to install and run the app in most cases.
Warning Signs:Check the most commonly reported data figures for your currently installed apps to make sure your installations are not using a lot more data than other users are reporting. If you have an app that uses significantly higher data than what other usersreport, your app may be infected or corrupted. Uninstall the app and run an anti-virus app if you suspect your phone has an infected application. If the app is corrupted, you'll have to uninstall and reinstall the Applications.
If you see data usage reported from an app you don't recognize, it's likely to be a virus. Viruses may cause your phone to use more data and have poor app performance and will slow your speeds in general. Run an anti-virus app immediately if you suspect a virus.
A data tracking app is very useful if you're having trouble with downloading, but you must check the results thoroughly, so you can identify the issue you're having. You may have to get rid of a problem app even if you can't find a replacement in some cases, particularly if the app in question is a major data consumer.

prohit chauhan

PGDM 2nd SEM

How Faceook keeps its R&D cost low

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Facebook spends a smaller percentage of revenue on engineering than other Internet companies

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc (FB) spends a smaller percentage of revenue on engineering than other Internet companies, mimicking Apple Inc's strategy of keeping costs low by relying on outside developers for research and development.

Facebook devoted 10 per cent of its sales to R&D spending last year, a fraction of the level of some other companies holding recent initial public offerings, including Zynga Inc and LinkedIn Corp. Facebook, the biggest social-networking service, is planning its own IPO this year.

The company, known for its hacker culture and marathon coding sessions, has increasingly encouraged other companies to add features to its site. Lower expenses have given Facebook fatter profit margins than the typical prospective IPO, said Colin Gillis, an analyst with BGC Partners LP in New York. The challenge is maintaining that growth amid mounting competition from Google Inc and younger startups.

"They are robust margins to be coming out of the gate with," Gillis said. "Typically what happens is a company goes public and investors like to see margin expansion." Facebook's profit margin in 2011 was 27 per cent, up from 19 per cent in 2010 and 16 per cent the previous year. That tops the 14 per cent average for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

Room to grow?

Excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, Facebook's profit margin was 56 per cent last year. That doesn't give the company much room for improvement, Gillis said.

Jonathan Thaw, a spokesman for Menlo Park, California-based Facebook, declined to comment. For now, Facebook is operating in the mold of Apple, the world's most valuable company. While Apple develops plenty of its own technology, it lets outside developers create the hundreds of thousands of apps that run on its iPhones and iPads.

The approach keeps customers loyal to its hardware without R&D eating up as much revenue. Apple devoted 1.6 percent of sales to research and development last quarter.

"We don't see any of the R&D spend by the app developers in Apple's numbers, but we see it in the result of the innovativeness," said Ron Adner, an author and professor at Dartmouth College. "Same thing with Facebook."

In Facebook's case, developers such as Zynga carry much of the weight. Zynga, based in San Francisco, offers the most popular games on Facebook's site, including "FarmVille," "Mafia Wars" and "Words With Friends."

Sales gains

For both Facebook and Apple, the relatively small R&D budgets stem in part from having booming sales. Facebook's revenue almost doubled to $3.71 billion last year after expanding more than 150 per cent the previous year. It's a challenge to hire enough engineers to keep pace with that growth, said Avi Goldfarb, a professor at the University of Toronto.

"It's a very complicated process," he said. "R&D is not something you can just throw money at and hope everything works out." Still, increasing competition for Internet users and advertisers may push Facebook into stepping up its research spending.

The Google+ social-networking site, started last year, has attracted more than 100 million users. Google also is making gains in display advertising -- Facebook's main source of revenue. It's expected to take the lead from Facebook in the market for US display ads next year, according to research firm EMarketer Inc.

Upstart rivals

To keep up, Facebook may have to spend 15 percent of revenue on engineering, said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at Wedge Partners Corp in Greenwood Village, Colorado. Newer rivals could quickly emerge to challenge its supremacy in social networking, just as Facebook itself displaced MySpace, he said.

Even so, Facebook's lower R&D spending doesn't mean the company is underinvesting in future products, said Nate Elliott, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc in New York. Facebook has continued to roll out new products, including a revamped timeline feature for its profile pages and mobile services that let members show their locations.

"I would be more concerned if they weren't leading the social-media space in innovation," Elliott said. "This is the social site that has done more than any other to introduce new features and new ways for consumers to interact with their property."

And unlike Google, Facebook is dabbling in fewer projects that are far afield of its main business, Adner said. "They're not out there coming up with driverless cars," he said. "They're not out there coming up with solutions for solar energy. They're completely focused on their business. That probably increases the effectiveness of whatever spend we're seeing."

Facebook's future research budget may hinge on the company getting a better idea of what areas it needs to focus on, said Sameet Sinha, an analyst with B. Riley & Co. For example, if it decides to pursue e-commerce more aggressively, that would put it in more competition with Amazon.com Inc.

"Once they decide what's going on, what's going to be important for them, I think they will intensify their R&D efforts," he said. 

 

Deepak Kumar-PG-II

Samsung launches Smart TV with voice control in India

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Samsung Electronics launched smart television for the Indian market

BANGKOK: Samsung Electronics launched smart television for the Indian market that would allow users to control TV through voice or motion commands.

Users can turn the TV on or off, activate select applications or search for select content in the web browser - without touching the remote.

The smart interaction is available on the company's 2012 flagship smart TVs, including the LED ES8000 series, LED ES7500 series and the plasma E8000 series.

The price of these smart TVs would range from Rs 45,000 to Rs 2.65 lakh.

"South West Asian consumers have been quick to adopt mobile technologies, like smartphones and tablets that allow them to make their content accessible wherever they go," said B.D. Park, president and CEO, South West Asia and managing director Samsung India Electronics at Samsung's South West Asia Regional Forum 2012.

"They expect not only greater accessibility but greater, more compelling content - all of which are needs met through Samsung's vision for the future of smart TV," he added.

The products are built on three parameters - smart interaction, smart content and smart evolution. The firm also unveiled Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 310, expanding its Galaxy range. Available in 3G and WiFi versions, the product would be available in South West Asia from April.

Equipped with Android 4.0, the tablet features WiFi Direct and built-in social networking features such as ChatON, Samsung's cross-platform communication service.

Currently the company has over 40 per cent market share of tablets in India. Samsung India reported a sale of Rs 20,000 crore in 2011.
Prohit Chauhan-PG-2

Tablets helping media industry: Study

AP | Mar 19, 2012, 10.36AM IST

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Read more:YouTube|Yahoo|Twitter|The Washington Post|Tablet|Online revenues|Newspapers|News|Microsoft|media industry|Media|Journalism|iPad|Google|Flipboard|Facebook|APP|AOL

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Mobile technology appears to be increasing the public appetite for news but it's far from clear whether the news industry will profit from that.

NEW YORK: Mobile technology appears to be increasing the public appetite for news but it's far from clear whether the news industry will profit from that, a study issued Monday concluded.

The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, in its annual state of the news media report, found encouraging signs within the 27 per cent of Americans who say they get news on their smartphones or tablets.

These consumers are likely to seek out traditional news sites or applications, strengthening their bond with old newspaper or television news organizations. People with tablets tend to read longer articles and spend more time with news sites than they do on phones or desktop computers, said Tom Rosenstiel, Project for Excellence in Journalism director.

Many people already make it a habit to check their tablets before going to bed to see what is going to be in a newspaper the next day, he said.

Unique visits to online news sites jumped 17 per cent from 2010 to 2011, similar to the increase from the year before, the report said.

"The demand for conventional journalism endures and in some ways is even growing," Rosenstiel said. "There were many people that didn't predict that. The content is still coming from traditional news companies."

Yet technology companies, rather than news companies, are better set up to take advantage of online revenue opportunities. The report found that five companies - Microsoft, Google, Facebook, AOL and Yahoo! - generated 68 per cent of digital ad revenue in 2011.

News companies are generally not as able to provide the specific consumer information that digital advertisers seek, and they certainly have not been as aggressive in this area as the technology companies, said media critic Jeff Jarvis, who writes the Buzzmachine.com blog.

Jarvis also criticizes news organisations for not being more creative with their websites and applications, and not encouraging users to link information.

"I fear the iPad is a siren call to news organizations, seducing them into thinking they can maintain their old models and old controls, not just maintain but regain them," he said.

For news organizations, "there's a lot of work that needs to be done," said Roger Fidler, program director at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. "But it needs to be done very quickly."

Rosenstiel noted the trend of technology companies working with news organizations on new ventures announced within the past year: Yahoo! reaching a deal to stream ABC News reports; YouTube launching original programming channels, including one operated by the news service Thomson Reuters; The Washington Post developing a news aggregator, Trove.com, available through Facebook.

The Associated Press has begun providing some of its election coverage to the popular tablet app Flipboard, entered into a partnership with WhoSay.com over use of celebrity photos and also worked with Twitter on release of Nevada Republican caucus results.

The PEJ report noted how social media is increasingly driving news, through people who pass along recommendations to read articles to their friends through Facebook and Twitter. Still, only 9 per cent of adults say they follow such recommendations regularly, compared to 36 per cent who say they go directly to a news organization's app.

Most media sectors saw audience growth in 2011, with the exception of newspapers, the report said. The television network news audience grew for the first time in a decade and local stations also saw news growth in the late evening and early morning, the PEJ said. 

 

Rakesh Poddar-PG-II

Lenovo's fiscal Q3 profit up 54 percent, increases China share

Lenovo's profit in its fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31 grew 54 percent year-over-year, as the company saw growth in many key markets.
PC shipments increased by 37 percent, the Chinese PC vendor reported on Thursday.
Profit was US$153 million at the end of the quarter, while revenue rose by 44 percent year-over-year to $8.4 billion.
Lenovo's business continues to grow despite a sluggish PC market brought on by uncertain economic conditions, and consumer interest in tablets. The company was rated by research firms Gartner and IDC as the world's second largest PC vendor, surpassing Dell, in the third quarter of 2011.
Lenovo has credited its success to its focus on strengthening its PC business in its home turf in China -- expected to be the world's largest PC market in 2012 -- while also "attacking" emerging markets such as Russia and India. In China, the company said it now had a record 35.3 percent market share.
"In China, you only have to walk around a few blocks and you will be able to find a Lenovo store or service center," said Gartner analyst Eileen He. The company continues to invest in distribution channels not only in China, but also in foreign markets, which helped drive Lenovo's growth, she added.
Lenovo also reported growth in mature markets. The company said its PC shipments in Western Europe and North America increased by 67 percent year-over-year during the quarter.
In its mobile Internet business, which includes tablets and smartphones, Lenovo reported "strong progress". In the fiscal third quarter, the company sold 6.5 million handsets, of which almost half were smartphones.
saket kumar
pgdm2nd sem

The new Concorde: Supersonic jet will get you from London to New York in just three hours

It is five years ago almost to the day that Concorde approached Heathrow airport under much fanfare and nostalgia on its last official flight before heading off into retirement.
In a move which for some people signalled a step backwards for technology, the Anglo-French aviation-engineering masterpiece touched down and with it the chance for people to experience supersonic air travel.
But now, an American firm is on the cusp of re-imagining the supersonic dream and confidently plans to have supersonic commercial aircraft back in the skies as a reality by 2015.

The future: It's hoped the £47.5million jet will be on the market by 2015

The Aerion Supersonic Jet may not have the same grace and style and the size of the great Concorde, but the Aerion group are so sure that the plane will fly that they have pencilled in test flights for 2012, with transatlantic testing to follow soon after.
Reaching a top speed of mach 1.6 the jet will once again put New York within three hours flight time of London.
The company are so confident in the design that they claim to have 50 interested parties, who have all paid the £150,000 deposit.

SUNIL SINGH NEGI
PGDM-II semester

 

Cisco:

Some UCS B440 Blades Could Overheat, Need Replacing  The company is directly contacting the customers and will replace UCS B440 blade servers currently deployed at customer sites. Cisco is making UCS B440 blade server hardware modifications and has launched a hardware replacement program  


prohit chauhan
pgdm 2nd sem

MIT Genius Stuffs 100 Processors Into Single Chip

MIT Genius Stuffs 100 Processors Into Single Chip

Forget dual-core and quad-core processors: A semiconductor company promises to pack 100 cores into a processor that can be used in applications that require hefty computing punch, like video conferencing, wireless base stations and networking. By comparison, Intel’s latest chips are expected to have just eight cores. With a revolutionary new chip architecture and programming tool set, Anant Agarwal of Tilera embedded the processing power of hundreds of cores on a single chip. Tilera’s technology addresses the three biggest challenges in today’s semiconductor market, offering a processor that is high-performance, power-efficient, and easy to program.
“This is a general-purpose chip that can run off-the-shelf programs almost unmodified,” says Anant Agarwal, chief technical officer of Tilera, the company that is making the 100-core chip. “And we can do that while offering at least four times the compute performance of an Intel Nehalem-Ex, while burning a third of the power as a Nehalem.”

Sunil Singh Negi
pgdm - II semester

‘Laser rifle’ is latest U.S. weapon against enemies

Last month, a British defense company demonstrated how a non-lethal laser weapon can be used to ward off pirates. Now, American researchers have created a laser gun that sea bandits really wouldn’t want to mess with.
While the crystalline Neodymium Yttrium Aluminium Garnet laser canon, developed by BAE Systems, can temporarily disorient an assailant with a pulse of blinding light, another prototype called the TR3 Threat Deterrent Laser Rifle is compact and the laser settings can be adjusted to inflict some serious pain.
(To learn more about BAE Systems’ laser canon, check out my colleague John Herrman’s post here)
The TR3, developed by Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems and SPA Defense, can deliver a pretty intense 3-watt green laser at targets stationed up to one and a half miles away when operated at night. The rifle’s re-chargeable lithium-ion battery allows for up to 30 plus minutes of continuous firing.
David Crane of DefenseReview.com got to test out a prototype during the recent Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference or SHOT show and described the experience on his website:
We actually got to T&E the TR3 ourselves, and came away very impressed with it. You can adjust the intense green laser beam’s focus using a dial that surrounds the weapon’s emitter (“barrel”/”muzzle”). You can disperse the beam so that it’s eye-safe for hitting bad guys in the face, or dial the beam into a retina-frying focus.
A company-produced video of the TR3 in action may exist and Crane plans to upload footage if he ever gets his hands on it.\

sanjay singh rawat,deepak gupta .

it news

Indian Start-Up Enters Two-Factor Authentication Market  In a bid to tap opportunities in the Rs 200 crore two-factor authentication market in India, ArrayShield Technologies would sign up with 30 tier-2 partners and scout customers in the manufacturing, IT/ITeS, construction and BFSI segments 



prohit chauhan
pgdm ist year

window 8

 screenshots of Microsoft’s latest unified operating system Windows 8, the tech giant is going to discard the 17-year-old Start button.
Until its untimely (or timely) jettison, the Windows 8 start button located in the Metro user interface offer access to the search, share, devices, and settings panels. The Windows start button in the desktop simply returned users to the Metro UI.
Reliable aides informed, to replace the start button; Microsoft has reportedly turned that space into a hot corner at the lower left. . When that invisible hotspot is touched or clicked, the interface switches from desktop to Metro, or vice versa. That location is where the Start button currently resides in the Windows 8 Developer Preview.
To rewind, Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 in September 2011 and has claimed that Windows 8 would be equally suitable for both tablets and desktops. The software giant believes the new touch based Windows 8 will narrow the gap between tablets and traditional PCs and allow users to enjoy best of both worlds. In addition, Microsoft is also ensuring a flawless cloud experience that will keep Windows 8 devices synced each other.


                                                   prohit chauhan

IT headlines

Microsoft updates Dynamics CRM service for Android

Cisco: Some UCS B440 Blades Could Overheat, Need Replacing The company is directly contacting the customers and will replace UCS B440 blade servers currently deployed at customer sites. Cisco is making UCS B440 blade server hardware modifications and has launched a hardware replacement program prohit chauhan

nokia mobile market

tata it field

In recent times, the Tata Steel Group has been concentrating on the geographies that are logistically favourable to its plants in Europe and Asia, in response to current realities of the marketplace. Tata Steel has been working to enhance customer satisfaction and relationships with existing clients. As opposed to competitors who split and diversify, Tata Steel is focusing on positive markets by applying its resources to the core business where they are most needed. In order to spread the customer base and maximise leverage from the economic packages, special initiatives were devoted to Government funded projects and the Railways.

The Singapore operations of NatSteel and the Xiamen operations engaged in efforts to align the price-cost cycle to mitigate risks of price fluctuations. A focus area for Tata Steel European operations have been the continuous enhancement of customer support in the automotive market.

Several new initiatives have been undertaken to improve customer service in every market segment.

• Tata Steel had implemented Vehicle Tracking system (VTS) way back in 2002. In line with the Company’s endeavour to improve customer service, approx 1600 Global Positioning System (GPS) mounted vehicles have been deployed by transport partners of material movement across the Country. This is the largest implementation of GPS enabled fleet in the steel industry.
• To bring about improvement in delivery reliability, a billboard has been created and uploaded on CSD webpage to track vehicles on-line, again a first in the Indian Steel industry.
• Major drive has been taken to reduce service claims through development of desired infrastructure at Hubs/Stock yards and deployment of specialised vehicles.
• In order to create service differentiation, an auto compliant hub has been developed at Chennai. Fleet of special vehicles has further been augmented to deliver damage free skin panels.
• Standard operating procedures for receipt, storage, handling and delivery of steel materials at all stock points have been implemented.
• Tata Steel has created transport parks in Jamshedpur to ease out traffic flow and educate all drivers on safety and health concerns. As a CSR initiative approximately 2000 drivers undergo medical check-up at our facilities every month.

 

it headlines

Nicira debuts with its SDN baby

feb 6

One of the most anticipated debuts of a startup company happens today when Nicira, a maker of network virtualization software, comes out of stealth mode.

Cloudyn monitors and optimizes AWS usage

Feb 06, 2012 12:06 am 

Cloudyn is launching a hosted service on Monday that aims to monitor a company's cloud usage and recommend ways to optimize that usage in order to cut costs.

EMC launches 'Project Lightning' PCIe cards

Feb 05, 2012 04:32 pm 

EMC today announced the availability of its 'Project Lightning' PCIe flash cards, dubbed VFCache, which install into application servers to increase I/O performance.

Micron appoints COO Durcan as CEO after Appleton's death

Feb 05, 2012 04:10 pm | IDG News Service

Memory company Micron Technology has appointed Mark Durcan as its new CEO, quickly replacing the former CEO Steve Appleton who died in a plane crash on Friday.

EMC ramps up flash game with VFCache, 'Thunder' appliance

Feb 05, 2012 03:06 am 

EMC is now shipping its long-awaited entry in the server-based flash storage market while laying the groundwork for a future appliance based on the same technology.

Apple Pulls Ripoff Apps From its Walled Garden

Feb 05, 2012 12:13 am 

Apple perhaps knows better than any company that app ripoffs are everywhere.