If you call international locations from India frequently, this will bring a smile on your face. Nimbuzz, the popular PC and mobile messaging app has forged a partnership with Spectranet to launch "Spectranet hello IP", a legal VoIP calling platform that will allow Nimbuzz users in India to make international calls at super cheap rates. This service can be used either from PC or mobile across all data networks and Wi-Fi starting today and is applicable only to international calls made from India.

Calling to US through Spectranet Hello IP is nearly equivalent to prices of a local mobile call. A call from India to US on a landline or mobile phone costs 0.008 cents per minute or equivalent to around 50 paise per minute, or less than 1 paise per second. Even calls to UK work out to be extremely cheap, roughly around Rs. 1.25 per minute.

With these kind of rates available, a user may not think twice about having long international calls. Calling rates for countries other than US and UK are also comparatively quite cheap [Check them here].

While calling from US to India is relatively cheaper due to presence of calling cards, it has always been expensive to call internationally out of India. Till sometime back, VOIP was illegal in India and was not allowed and hence the calls had to go from traditional PSTN channels. With VOIP gaining acceptance, the calling rates have fallen drastically over last couple of years.

Apart from Nimbuzz, there are other VOIP calling solutions available like Skype and Localphone. But they are still more than twice as expensive as what Nimbuzz is offering.

So, this festive season you will not have to think twice before calling your loved one or friend in a distant country, just make sure you have Nimbuzz installed on phones!

This is something that is not talked about often, at least not more than passing. While there are phones that are over Rs. 40,000 and are the prodigal children of the companies. The flagships that offer you the world – Quad core processor, 2 GB RAM, a huge screen and what not.

And then there are phones that hold the promise of providing Android to everyone. The barrier of owning a smartphone is currently merely Rs. 3000. That is the price where Micromax Bolt A27 and Josh Fortuna Square lie. In perspective, Nokia Asha 205 (cheapest Asha Phone) is around Rs. 3500.

Now, while people might scoff that these phones are nothing to brag about and would not function properly, let us see their specs:-

I have added Samsung's Galaxy Ace for reference. It is the phone that I owned a year and a half back. Also, this is one of the currently used phones in my family.

The phone is working perfectly and you can play Angry Birds on it. In fact, when I bought it for Rs. 15000 it was one of the best out there. Now, phones that have arguably similar hardware specs are priced at a mere Rs. 3000 mark.

Don't get me wrong, Ace would in all probability perform better than these two. The quality of processor etc. matter but still, the difference would not be that huge that these two phones will stutter.

In today's quad-core frenzy we forget that Android runs quite smoothly in 1 GHz processor and with subsequent iterations Google is actually trying to reduce the hardware requirements.

The only glaring difference is the Camera which is pretty obvious as it is one of the costlier components of any phone.

The point I want to make is that these phone would not be slow and painful to use, at least not because of the hardware.

That brings me to second point. I believe that the primary reason why the phones at these price ranges act slow is because probably the company did not work on the software enough. If the tweaking is done aptly, Android will run quite smoothly on these phones. It still runs pretty well on my Ace.

It is really heartening to see that the price point for smartphones have reached almost equivalent to feature phones. While companies can make a lot of margins in the high end segment, it is this low end segment where the reach of smartphone helps the people on ground level and supports development of India.

Bottom-line is, if software on the phone is tweaked, and if specs on camera can be compromised, nothing stops a a INR 3000 Android phone to satisfy most of the mobile user's need.

What's your take on this?

HomeShop 18 Raises $14 million from GS Shopping

HomeShop18, the online shopping and tele-shopping portal from Network18 stable has raised a follow-on round funding of USD 14 million from existing investors GS Home Shopping (fund managed by OCP Asia, their prior investors) and their parent company Network 18. GS will invest USD 11 million, While Network18 will put the remaining amount. [Source]

This is Homeshop18's fourth round of funding – They had previously raised USD 30 million in April this year from Hedge Fund OCP Asia. Prior to that in 2008, Homeshop18 had raised USD 16 million from SAIF Partners and an additional USD 5 million from Capital18. In 2009, GS Shopping, invested USD 18.5 million for a 15% stake in the company.

With the current raise, Homeshop18 has raised a total of USD 64.5 million in 4 rounds. As per the reports, the current funding values HomeShop18 at USD 360 million.

Sundeep Malhotra, CEO of HomeShop18 said in regards to funding, "This round marks an inflexion point for the business as the company rapidly moves towards profitability while continuing to scale up revenues. It is gratifying to see the vote of confidence in our business model from GS and the continued support of OCP and our Promoter, Network18."

Intel Capital Funds 16 Companies To the Tune of USD 65 Million, Including Indian Savaari & Perpetuuiti

Intel Capital has announced that it has made investments in 16 companies spread across 9 countries to the tune of USD 65 million. Among the 16 companies are 2 Indian companies Perpetuuiti and Savaari.

Announced at the 14^th annual Intel Capital Global Summit held in San Diego, the new investments are part of Intel Capital's mission of cultivating global innovation by providing entrepreneurs with the resources necessary to scale from startup to global corporation level.

1. Perpetuuiti TechnoSoft Services (India) – Cloud Based On Demand Computing
2. Savaari Car Rentals (India) – Online Car rental
3. CloudFX (Singapore) – Enterprise Cloud Computing Solutions
4. Cloudian (Japan) – Cloud storage software provider
5. CSDN (China) – Community Website
6. DotProduct (USA)  – 3-D software developer
7. Fileforce (Japan) – Cloud Storage
8. Interlude (Israel)  – Online Video platform
9. Lintes Technologies (Taiwan) – High-speed connectivity Solutions
10. Mobiles Republic (France) – Mobile News Syndicator
11. Prism Skylabs (USA)  – Visual merchandising and analytics solutions
12. Reduxio Systems (Israel) – Hybrid storage provider
13. Rocketick (Israel) – Chip simulation acceleration
14. SBA Materials (USA)  – Semiconductor materials developer
15. SkySQL (Finland) – Open Source Database Solutions
16. WiTricity (USA) – Wireless electricity developer

Amongst all technology tools businesses use to grow themselves and provide value to the end-user, Augmented Reality is slowly catching up with its peer technologies. In industries as diverse as auto and apparel retailers, AR has boosted the way customers experience products.

Augmented Reality is defined as a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented (or supplemented) by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. In layman terms, AR allows for a digitally enhanced view of the real world. And some of the most loyal users are E-Retailers!

The main concept of Augmented Reality is to superimpose graphics, audio or any other sense enhancements in a real-time manner. The technology incorporates three components which include head-mounted display, tracking system and mobile computing power into one unit.

How E-Retailers are using Augmented Reality

Hyderabad-based startup Imaginate has created virtual trial rooms that buyers can use beginning December. The company said it has access to about 15 ecommerce stores globally, including Flipkart, and expects to generate sales of $50,000 USD in fiscal 2014. Binny Bansal, cofounder and COO of Flipkart had said, “We are looking at multiple things and this (augmented reality) is one of them.”

If you remember, Fitiquette, another startup which was had created a virtual fitting room platform, was acquired by Lifestyle online store Myntra.

Other sectors actively using this technology are the automotive and media sector.

Adstuck Consulting, a four-year-old startup in Delhi designed an app for Maruti Suzuki to promote its Alto 800 model last year.

This allowed a user to sift through videos, book a test drive and talk about the model on social media. “We ran a month-long campaign and the returns were better than any other medium or mode,” said Abhishek Pandey, media manager at Maruti. And its not just the hype, there is money too. Adstuck Consulting earned revenue of 10 crore in fiscal 2013.

Media behemoth Times of India's Times Mobile an augmented reality app Alive which has been used by nearly 100 brands in the past 10 months, including Knorr, Nestle, Mirinda, Philips and LG. Ajay Vaishnavi, director of Times Mobile, said, "The end result of all this, is providing brands a new exotic way of interacting with their users and give them great mobile marketing experience through their smartphones. Alive (app) has been growing month on month not just in terms of downloads and scans but also in number of advertisers."

The best use of this technology is waiting to happen in the sector which is any country's backbone – the educational sector. Hi-Tech Institute of Engineering & Technology based in Ghaziabad is also in talks with Adstuck to bring the same technology to schools. Viewing the lab equipments around you and seeing the way it functions, any student who has an aversion to studies would be left mesmerized by the way it is shown!

With the way technology is growing by leaps and bounds, the customer is surely getting pampered to no end, right?

Digital music is a very promising sector in India, which is witnessing a robust growth since last few years. It is estimated that online music generates more than Rs 650 crore annual revenues inside India and in the year 2011, the sale of online music surpassed the sale of physical music albums for the first time in the history.

Gaana.com, which is backed by Times Internet, is one of the major players in online music streaming industry. With as estimated 5 million monthly users, Gaana offers around 2 million songs spread across 84 languages and different genres of music.

Recently, Gaana.com revamped itself, with the launch of Gaana 3.0 version for web and mobile platform. With some interesting features such as integration with social networks, inclusion of radio stations from all over the world, and customized and curated playlists, Gaana is all set to redefine online music streaming inside India.

We spoke to Mr. Pawan Agarwal, Business Head of Gaana.com to understand the new revamped look & feel of this online music platform. Here are some excerpts:

The new Gaana.com has been developed on HTML5 platform. Any specific reasons?

We want our users to have a consistent experience across devices – desktop, tablet, mobile. Hence we chose html5 technology & responsive layouts, which enables us to adjust the look of page based on the screen resolution.

Can a user download songs by paying a fee? Any plans of making this feature available on web in future?

There is already a Gaana + feature on mobile apps, where a consumer can pay a monthly fee, and enjoy music, even without an internet connection.

How do you plan to monetize your 5 million+ monthly visitors? Any plans of making this service paid in future?

Gaana already has a paid service on Mobile, with features, like high quality files, downloading tracks, and listening to them without a connection and ad free.

Can users create their own playlists?

Yes, Gaana 3.0 gives listeners an opportunity wherein the consumers can create their own playlists.

How can one socialize on Gaana?

We have incorporated new social features, wherein one can follow other users and artists and see what they are listening to etc. Additionally users logged in through a social login, can see their friend’s listening activity.

Who curates the songs and who creates the list? Do you also put up a song in the list just because an advertiser is willing to pay?

At Gaana we do not compromise with consumer preferences, and tastes. The curation on the site is done by experienced, hands on, editorial teams.

Which genre of music is the most popular among your 5 million listeners?

Bollywood, as a category is the most popular amongst all. New Hindi film music is what the consumers prefer.

How much growth you see in online music niche in India

Online music consumption in India is on a rise, we have seen the same increase at more than 50% year on year since the last three years, and with the internet penetration increasing at a fast pace, we expect this category to grow manifolds in the coming future.

–

The new Gaana.com design and navigation looks promising; and the curated songs are no doubt best in the class. Although they haven't exactly revealed how these songs are curated, and what makes them appear in top lists, but one thing is for sure: Gaana.com team understands music and wants music lovers to connect and enjoy better music on their platform.

Do you listen to online music? How is your experience with Gaana.com? Do you want to share any feedback related to better experience of listening to music? Do share your comments right here!