In a bid to offer high speed internet to rural and remote areas of country, RaiTail is launching RailWire. The telecom arm of Indian railways, RailTail aims to reach out to rural areas of the country at affordable rate via RailWire. Boasting of over 6000 customers, the service is currently launched as a pilot project in few areas of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

“Railwire service has been designed to provide an open source content delivery platform for providing various services including Broadband Internet, IP telephony, e-HealthCare, e-Education and other content driven services like gaming, video on demand services to individuals and small and medium business segment using cable operator’s infrastructure,”  RailTel Managing Director B K Bahuguna said.

According to the PTI report RailTel has also built a nationwide optical fibre cable (OFC) based broadband and multimedia network and has constructed about 42,000 km of OFC network in the country. As part of its expansion plans, RailTel is exploring ways to facilitate broadband through WiFi at railway stations for convenience of passengers.

As the world is getting closer due to internet connections, various tech companies are coming forward to bring affordable and high speed internet to rural areas. Google’s ‘Project Loon’ is also expected to solve low connectivity problem in India. In August, Facebook collaborated with six tech companies to launch internet.org which aims to connect the world.

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Nokia, the company whose Consumer Mobile Division was recently taken over by the company that outfits the phone with the Operating System, is surprisingly able to win back consumer attention. After carefully and diligently working hard to create an image of a company making smartphones with best–in–class cameras, Nokia is enjoying renewed interest for its products.

The Mobile Indian (TMI), the portal that routinely surveys the smartphone–using demographics about the likes and preferences has discovered that people have begun to actively seek Nokia Branded smartphones. Christened the 'Handset Hotlist Survey', TMI lists 25 phones that were actively searched for, when users landed on their website. Of the Million users in the month of September, it was found that Nokia branded devices have reentered the Top 25 Phones List with not one or two, but 4 Devices and that too from different Price Segments.

Why Nokia? Of the 25 most searched handsets there were six variants from Samsung and Micromax, two each from Spice and Xolo, and one each from Karbonn, Gionee, HTC and iBall.

However, what directly impacted the public perception about Nokia was its ability to infuse its phones with Camera Sensors that had specifications which rivaled standalone professional digital cameras. In the last few months, Nokia has released such popular high–end smartphones like the Lumia 1020, Lumia 925, 625, 520, as well as affordable handsets like the Nokia Asha 501.

Though priced high initially, actual prices of these devices have fallen very quickly, thereby making them a very attractive option. Additionally, the company very carefully steered the perception about their devices as smartphones with the best cameras. With a whopping 41MP Camera Sensor, Nokia Lumia 1020 simply blows all other top range smartphones out of the water.

Nokia might have suffered staggering loss to its market share to other players like Samsung and Apple. However, it is one of the pioneers and now it appears the company is using the knowledge about the markets to take correct and tactile decisions by offering people exactly what they are searching for, said a spokesperson for TMI, "According to the data available with The Mobile Indian, last year too in October consumers were searching for phones that have better camera resolution, as 16 of the top 25 list in October had 5 or higher megapixel resolution."

Nokia may have been hurt, but it is still not out of the game. With correct pricing and timely releases of phones with typical Nokia durability, the company could indeed be able to regain noteworthy market share. What do you think?

Image Credits: cnet

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Google has released a new version of its Hangouts app for iOS. The latest update enables users to make free calls in the United States and Canada. The new feature brings the software in line with Google Hangouts for desktop computers, which already boasts the functionality.

The new feature is part of version 1.3.0 of  iOS Hangouts for for the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod Touch. Users can even make international calls, of course these calls are not free. If a user has a Google Voice account, they are able to both make and receive calls, using the number provided with Google Voice. Google said in a blog post that "outgoing calls will come from your Google Voice number and incoming Voice calls can be answered from Google+ Hangouts." The voice calling doesn’t even require a SIM card.

Also included in the new version is the ability to see which friends are currently online, support for animated GIFs and a fix to keep the app from stopping your music when a message comes in.  Moving forward iOS users will be able to see any of these GIFs playing in-line. This means iOS users will be able to send and receive those animated GIFs. Last week Google revealed that default SMS app is coming to Android 4.4 KitKat.

Companies are trying to offer such services to users owing to a shift to instant messaging.

You can update the iOS app here.

Image Credits: phandroid

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Acer, the company that once primarily made Personal Computer Devices, has been expanding gradually in the Portable Devices like Mobiles, Smartphones and Tablets. Now the company has come up with Iconia W4, a refined and upgraded version of its earlier sibling, the W3. This 8 Inch Display tablet is the first one to run the full and updated version of Windows Operating System; Windows 8.1. Acer is even throwing Microsoft Home and Office 2013 in, for free.

With Iconia W4, Acer could have made a serious breakthrough in the world of tablets that is nearly and completely cornered by Android in the Low and Medium Price Segment, while the premium end is controlled by Apple's iPad.

The Iconia W4 features an 8 Inch Optically Bonded IPS Display with 1280x800p resolution. The display is built using Zero Gap Technology, which is quite similar to the One–Glass solution which nearly eliminates the gap between the Glass and the Digitizer. Essentially, Zero Gap Technology should have the Glass infused with Digitizer, which not only eliminates the gap, but significantly improves the visibility. The makers claim an astounding 178^o viewing angle. Though the tablet lacks inbuilt 3G Connectivity option, Acer has included all the latest standards like Bluetooth 4.0 and WiFi. Additionally, standard connectivity ports like Micro USB Micro HDMI and even a Micro SD card slot are there. The Micro HDMI port makes it super easy to connect to a PC or a large Screen LED TV and essentially turn the 8 Inch Tablet into a Massive Display Computer.

These features are fairly standard in most of the Android as well as Windows Tablets. But what sets this tablet apart is the inclusion of new and powerful, yet affordable Atom 'Bay Trail' processor, which is clocked at 1.8GHz and is supported by 2GB of RAM. To ensure the relatively tiny Screened Devices isn't stuck with being branded as merely a leisure device, the company has released a 'Crunch Keyboard' that connects via Bluetooth and it turns the tablet into a complete desktop that is highly portable. If that's not all, this tablet features two cameras, a 5MP Primary back camera as well as a 2MP front facing one.

Windows Tablets have traditionally been perceived as costly devices with limited functionality. But Acer's W4 with greatly improved internals just might  rub–off this label. With 32GB Version priced at US$ 329.99 and a 64 GB one at just US$ 379.99, the W4 could indeed be a great little device that Windows Users were looking for. What do you think?

Image Credits: ndtv

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E-commerce has risen and is demanding tools to run its business more efficiently. There are many aspects related to consumer choice and delivery time that these ventures capitalize on and sophisticated softwares are required to do this job and when there is demand, there is supply. Nexus Venture Partners backed data analytics company, Indix has launched its SaaS and big data product intelligence platform that targets brand managers, price analysts, retail merchandisers and product managers.

Software as a service in the context of big data is a software facility that lets a business run its big data operations on a cloud. This is a convergence of a lot of technologies and was not possible before the advent of the digital shopping spree that is currently taking shape in the Indian online markets and elsewhere in the world for that matter.

Big data today is the buzz word. When e-commerce started in India, small companies struggled with issues like logistics and procurement of items. These days when e-commerce is at a stage when enough people trust the online shops and are getting used to the whole e-comm paradigm, big data comes into picture. This technology, in simple words, lets the website record literally every click and page visit time and products that a customer checked out and segregates that into data that can be analyzed. The result is a perfect graphical analysis of user choice, top selling products and other trends that let businesses mold their strategies of operation to suit the market and shifting preferences.

Products, SKUs, competition analysis and categories analysis are accessible to the customers of Indix and real time insights on pricing, markdowns, availability, among others are also available. The whole thing is controlled through a dashboard for easy access. Imagine a DNS server setup and domain management but only for brand managers and price analysts and not web developers. The company is also introducing a beta version of its APIs for third-party developers to build applications that incorporate information and insights about products and services. That could lead to some really innovative app designs for cloud based big data analysis.

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Tata Docomo, a Joint Venture Telecommunications company between Tata Teleservices and NTT Docomo, operational in India, has introduced its Software as a Service (SaaS) package. Christened InstaSoft, the Business focused Productivity Suite has been readied to cater to multiple core facets of running an enterprise with multiple employees.

InstaSoft is essentially a bundle of different 'Office Productivity Suites'. While the complete package claims to offer 'end-to-end solution to enterprises', it has three prominent sections.

Virtual Office: Called InstaOffice, it is a messaging and collaboration solution offering a comprehensive set of communications tools including email, calendar, groups, chat and documents. It even goes beyond interaction by offering sites and videos that increase productivity, knowledge management, teamwork and communication.

While such tools are fairly common, Tata Docomo has offered two more suites that would surely be appreciated by the companies that routinely have to deal with Employee Lifecycle Issues.

Called InstaHRMS, the virtual office suite claims to offers end-to-end HR solution covering all major aspects of employee's lifecycle. The company stresses that InstaHRMS enables talent retention, workforce and business alignment and employee development. Additionally, InstaHRMS also enables a holistic view of the workforce through detailed analytics planning. In essence, having all core HR applications integrated within a single suite offers HR Personnel and the upper management an instant bird’s eye view of the employee scenario and condition, which is hoped, will offer easier planning for HR requirements.

Apart from these two, Tata Docomo has added InstaMeet, which is basically a virtual boardroom application that is claimed 'will increase the company's overall reach and enable employees to work together by dissolving time and space differences'.

Office Productivity suites are quite common, even in the mobile ecosystem. Having realized the need for portability, multiple companies have brought forth myriad variants. The Tatas had some time back announced they would be thinking beyond the Core Telecommunications Products. Perhaps this is their answer to ensure long term revenue generation. What do you think?

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Merely six months after its official launch, Twitter is likely to kill its #Music App, according to a report from AllThingsD. The social music app which was launched on web and iOS enabled users to discover and find new music based on the microblogging network’s activity, the artists users follow and songs that are trending.

Despite creating quite a buzz during its launch, Twitter #Music has failed to impress users.  One of the reasons for its rocky start was that the service never landed on Android which is an extremely important platform. Just nine days after its launch, Twitter #Music dropped from the list of top 100 free app on iTunes. In India, the service kicked off on the iOS but never on the Web.

There’s no news on when support for Twitter Music app may end, but it is said to be coming relatively soon  Twitter Music is developed by We Are Hunted, the startup acquired by Twitter to work on its music products.

Earlier this year, Twitter partnered with Apple to feature a trending playlist station for iTunes Radio. It also added its playlist to Rdio, another online streaming music service. Such a move would be a dramatic change of course for Twitter, which is prepping for an initial public offering (IPO) widely expected next month.

In addition to its music initiative, Twitter has been focused on TV. Twitter started letting TV advertisers target ads to its users, and in August, it acquired Trendrr, a social media analytics company that focuses on television and serves big brands like ABC, MTV etc. In April this year, Twitter nailed its biggest advertising deal yet with one of the world's leading ad-buyers Publicis's Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG).

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Now this we didn't see coming at all! Google and Facebook have entered into an ad partnership where Google will sell Facebook ad inventory via DoubleClick's Bid Manager in real time. In the next few months, this will be rolled out to all marketers who are looking to buy Facebook ads.

The announcement was made by Payam Shodjai, Doubleclick's Senior Product Manager in an official blogpost.

“Partnership has been key to Google's success as a rising tide lifts all boats. So we're excited to announce a new way to help our clients succeed by working with Facebook to participate in FBX, their real-time bidding exchange.”

Facebook's ad exchange, FBX was started last year and the company partnered with many other companies, except for Google. This resulted in two big silos which marketers had to work separately with. The major reason for this unlikely move by both companies might be complaints from ad buyers regarding Google being missing from the FBX platform.

Both companies may have decided that it would make better business sense, if they collaborated with each other in terms of ads. Facebook exchange drops cookies onto a user's browser and can thus study their behavior beyond Facebook, thus giving marketers context and data about their potential users.

Both companies are competitors in the social networking space and have generally not collaborated much with each other. However, this move may be a sign of more collaboration to come in the future.

Source | Mashable

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