Innoz is a Bangalore based company that has pioneered web access for millions of people without actual web access. Their technology works on SMS, which is ubiquitous in a country like India. While mobile Internet usage is rising fast, there are large swaths of the Indian user base that cannot get consistent access to the Internet. Using SMS to interface with the Internet is a functional idea, which many people do not consider as revolutionary. This maybe because they have never really suffered internet outages or poor speeds. So much today in our daily lives depends on accessing information and poor internet connections and speeds can be crippling.

Innoz's SMSGyan is a search engine which receives queries from SMSs and returns the particular text from the Internet back to the phone. This is arguably a long winded way to access information, but you have to understand that it is a great option when you do not have access to the Internet at all. SMSGyan is seeing quite a bit traction already. According to the Limca Book of World Records, it is the largest offline search engine in the world serving a billion SMS queries by the end of 2012. Innoz doesn't just operate in India alone but has also expanded to seven other countries which face similar information access challenges.

The interesting part is what the company has in mind for the future. It is planning its own operating system for feature phones. They are calling it Project Brownie and when installed on such a phone, it will give instant access to Internet services via SMS. Currently, the user facing part of Project Brownie is the Android app that I downloaded recently. Brownie for Android is a lightweight Internet browser which focuses only on text. It attempts to bring the concept of apps to 'dumb phones'. When you fire up the app, you get a minimal interface which is only optimized for text.

You can then select the various apps such as Travel, Sports, Maps, Facebook, Twitter and so on and send queries via SMS. You can do a whole lot of searches about anything that you want. These SMS apps are written by developers all over India and other countries, similar to the TxtWeb platform. The apps bring a lot of services back to the humble dumbphone, which can then be enabled to access the Internet. Here are some images of the sample searches that we did with the app.

The great part is that while Brownie uses SMS as an query medium, you can also use it with the Internet if you want to. You can change this in the settings. In the last couple of weeks, we have noticed especially bad Internet service from Vodafone. 3G speeds are really pathetic and other people we know have assured us that they are facing similar issues. Apps like these are super helpful when such situations arise. We are going to keep the app for this specifically and also when we are travelling in a remote area with no Internet coverage. We think you will like this too. Give it a try and let us know what you think of it in the comments.

App | Brownie For Android

Website | Innoz

Hat Tip | The Next Web

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India has been waiting for the next revolutionary progress of Mobile Telephony & Ultra-High Speed Mobile Broadband, namely the 4^th Generation or 4G. While multiple companies are clamoring to get their networks up to the standard, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (RJIL) has become the first and at present the only company that has secured Unified Telecom License for all 22 service areas across India.

Reliance Jio is currently the only company that has a license to deploy 4G based internet and telephony service across all sectors or essentially in the entire India, stated the company in an official statement,

"RJIL has become the first telecom operator in the country to get pan-India unified license. RJIL is the only pan-India operator with Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) in all 22 telecom circles of India, capable of offering fourth generation (4G) wireless services."

The only other company vying to offer 4G services, currently seems to be Airtel. This Pan–India License elevates the importance and applicability of Reliance Jio to a whole new level. Being able to offer service across India will ensure customers opting for 4G services from Reliance will receive seamless connectivity to high speed 4G services without having to settle for fall–back options. For example, many GSM Companies have secured 3G License in only a few Telecom Circles and hence their subscribers have to make do with slower 2G Services once they enter a Circle where the telecom company hasn't bid and won 3G Spectrum.

After acquiring the Unified License, RJIL has tactfully migrated its existing ISP (Internet Service Provider) License along with Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum to the single Unified License. It now effectively has authorization for all services except Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite Service (GMPCS) under unified license in all service areas. Essentially, barring Direct Satellite Communication (Sat–Phones), Reliance can offer all possible Telecommunications and Data dependent services across India.

Reliance Industries cleverly chose to wait for 4G, to enter the Telecommunications Market. Now that it has formally entered, such reassuring steps are vital to boost customer confidence and enjoy large–scale adoption as and when 4G Services do become operational. What do you think?

Image Credits: itn

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Google is bringing one of its popular and coolest feature to Gmail and Google Docs. The search engine giant is adding handwriting feature which will enable users to hand write their emails and documents using their computer mouse or trackpad. Both Gmail and Google Docs within Drive will allow users to draw single or multiple characters using a mouse cursor or their finger on a trackpad.

Google said that Gmail will offer handwriting support for 50 languages while Google Docs will offer support for 20 languages, however Hindi is the only Indian language supported at the moment. After selecting desired input language the user will see a pencil icon  above the text-entry area, which will switch input into handwriting mode allowing characters to be drawn onto the screen.

"Handwriting input makes the internet easier to use by people worldwide and is also part of a larger effort to break the barrier between languages," Google product manager Xiangye Xiao said in a company blog post. The handwriting feature allows you to write several characters at once, especially useful for languages such as Chinese, Hindi and Japanese. Handwriting input can also be applied to Google Mobile Search and Chrome.

The update comes as part of a long-running series of changes that Google has been implementing to support handwriting. Google Translate began supporting handwriting input for 45 languages in July. Also, in August it updates Google Translate for Android with Hindi support.

Image Credits: gmail

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Photo Sharing Platform Instagram, which was bought by Social Media giant Facebook, has offered a simple preview of how ads will work on the same.

After officially acknowledging that ads will soon start appearing on Instagram, the platform has revealed how ads will look like on the social network when they come to the photo-sharing app. The ads are expected to start rolling in the form of Photos and Videos within a few months, but the preview revealed how users can still be in control of what they see. To ensure ads aren't rejected out rightly, the company is treading very cautiously and feeding its audience small morsels of information.

How will the ads work?
When Facebook started to deploy ads on its platform, they were in the form of subtle promoted posts and stories. But later the company became a little more aggressive and started utilizing the likes too, to compile ads. Though this method drew the ire of Facebook Users, the company gained valuable insights as to what was tolerated and more essentially, what worked. Additionally, after high deliberation, the company slowly and steadily started to insert ads on its mobile initiatives and such a snail paced technique worked wonders.

To ensure ads have a much higher tolerance level, Facebook offers a simple 'Hide All Updates From This Page' Button to completely avoid viewing the promoted pages and ads from a particular agency. Similarly on Instagram too, the promoted Images and Videos will have the option to hide the photo or video and provide feedback, via a button on the lower right corner. Additionally, the post will have a bold 'Sponsored' Label in the top-right corner which one can tap to find out more about ads on the social network.

Facebook CEO had famously said he won't consider monetizing Instagram so soon. But it appears the platform has reached maturity a lot sooner than anticipated. Though users will have elementary control over the ads, Instagram has now been officially monetized. How do you feel?

Image Credits: snd

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The Aadhaar Card endeavor undertaken by the current ruling Government of India has received a much needed incentivized boost. Axis Bank, in association with VISA, has launched a facility to get a Bank Account opened instantly using the Biometric Credentials stored in the Aadhar Database.

Christened 'eKYC', this instant verification and approval process is touted to be first of its kind and is currently available in 1000 Axis Bank Branches across 400 Major City Hubs. The facility will soon be extended to 1000 more Branches. eKYC is a critical step that will surely encourage users to opt for the same.

Launched way back last year, the Aadhar Initiative is a dream of the UPA Government that will one day be utilized to reduce cutbacks, corruption, as well as speed up remittances. Despite the extended time–frame, the project took a lot of time to gain momentum. Owing to the limitations of the nation, this highly technical project that gathered not just documentary evidence, but also biometric data of citizens like the Iris and Fingerprints, ran into a lot of hurdles along the way. Fortunately, the project has always been the recipient of funds that has somehow managed to keep the momentum going.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which has been entrusted with the duty of generating Aadhar Cards had launched three Aadhar enabled services in May. An authentication services using Iris, an authentication service using one time pin (OTP) and an electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) service.

Surprisingly, though the basic API and Data of Aadhar is free and open Axis Bank chose to go via VISA to get the relevant data. Nonetheless, the ability to simply walk into a Bank Branch with just a single proof should be incentive enough to boost Aadhar Card Adoption. What do you think?

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According to a report released by sharing analytics company Shareaholic, Google's web browsing products have been putting on a increasing lead compared to other browsers in the ecosystem. The report has tracked 250 million users and their browser data across 200,000 publishers. The numbers that emerge point to a market leading position for Chrome along with decline for IE, Firefox and others over the period of 9 months.

While Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE remain the most popular browsers among the lot, differences in market share have been growing in a pronounced manner and this report says that half of these other browsers were in decline.

1. The top 4 browsers mentioned above cover about 80% of the market. Google Chrome currently has the number 1 spot with a market share of 34.68%. Firefox came in second with a market share of 16.60%. These both are followed by Safari and IE respectively at 16.15% and 15.62%.

2. If you look at the above figure and combine the figures of Chrome and the stock Android browsers, then they are bigger than all of Firefox, Safari and IE combined. The stock Android browser has seen a growth of 26% from January till September. Chrome grew by 15.64% in that timeframe.

3. The report also suggests that the other popular browsers are in decline. Firefox usage is dropping and this reflects in the 11.6% drop in their market share. Opera lost 16.65% of its market share and Opera Mini lost 6.23%. IE has lost the most market share among the rest shrinking by 23.81%.

These numbers and analysis are based on a subset of Internet traffic and browser usage and thus cannot be a definitive measure of growth or decline. However, it is indicative of the growing usage of Chrome compared to other browsers. If this is true then Google has an advantage, not only over other in terms of usage and market share, but also from a technical perspective. The company has been developing technology only mean for Chrome, such as the Dart programming language which is supposed to be a replacement for Javascript. If the number of Chrome users increase even more, then Dart will automatically take precedence over Javascript as the default language of the web.

Source | Shareaholic Blog

Via | The Next Web

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Tumblr has revamped its search functionality in order to make the exploring posts easier. The social media blogging also enables search for multiple hashtags in single query. Hence, now when you search a certain term, the results page shows posts that mentions that term and not just the ones tagged with those terms.

Additionally, both Tumblr search and Tumblr's tag pages now automatically sort posts into "top" posts and "recent" posts, instead of displaying them all at once in chronological order. The display also functions more like a Google search, allowing users to filter posts by type and thumb through image posts one at a time. The tweaks let it unblock innocuous keywords in its apps that used to be prohibited by app store policies.

“In an effort to make the explicit content filter more transparent (and less confusing), we’ve moved the option right to the search results page. We’ve also been able to use this smarter filtering to unblock innocuous keywords in our apps that used to be prohibited by app store policies. #reaction gif #happy!” said the post on Tumblr blog.

The Yahoo owned blogging site has also revealed that it has passed 65 billion posts which is up from 45 million in March this year. The number of blogs has also surged to 143 million, up from 100 million earlier this year. In July, Tumblr updated Android and iOS apps with improved search and discovery features along with trending topics. The blogging site also launched sponsored posts on desktop and launched Windows 8 app in April.

Image Credits: bct

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After having grown into a giant in the Indian phone manufacturing space, Micromax has announced that it is looking to enter the European market by targeting Russia and Romania by the end of the year. The company is currently the second biggest handset maker in India after Samsung and plans to ride the wave to grow beyond Indian borders.

Micromax's global ambition showed a few days back when they announced Hollywood actor, Hugh Jackman as a brand ambassador bypassing the usual route of roping in a Bollywood celebrity or cricket star to represent their brand. Jackman will be promoting the company's upcoming Canvas Turbo phone. The company has consistently made high end smartphone technology very accessible to Indian users by making them available at extremely affordable prices.

Rahul Sharma, Co-Founder of Micromax spoke about the company's global ambition,

"Our end goal is to go global as an Indian hardware brand. I do not want to be seen as an Indian company anymore. We have tested waters in markets such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and we are among the top three phone brands in both the markets."

He also spoke of specific Europe related expansion plans,

"We are launching in Russia in December and if I am able to crack Russia, we will also able to capture the whole (of) Europe. We have a couple of products especially for that market, and Google doesn't work there so we have tied up with Yandex on the application level."

The company has set up a Russian office with employees and executives coming in from rival phone hardware companies. NextBigWhat raised some questions about whether Micromax going global was actually a good thing. The patent war abroad is ferocious and it is likely that the Indian company may run into problems when it comes to patents. When you think of this the company is rather well protected in India, but venturing outside could be a liability. However, if the company is able to navigate these rough seas, then there could be a lot of potential for the company to become a global brand. Over the last year, we have seen the company upping its quality when it comes to Android based smartphones and steadily increasing the price (which still remains affordable compared to heavyweights like Samsung, Sony and HTC).

What are your thoughts on Micromax's planned expansion? Share with us.

Source | The Hindu Businessline

Image Source | FoneArena

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On the road to Twitter's IPO in the first week of November, the company has been making sure that it doesn't face the issue that Facebook faced when it went public. The company has announced that it will be setting the IPO price range between $17 to $20 and will offer 70 million shares. An addition 10.5 million shares could be available depending on the actions of the underwriters. On the higher side of the price range, the company could raise around $1.4 billion.

These IPO numbers are very conservative compared to previous tech company IPOs and this maybe intentional as Twitter wants to avoid the problems that dogged companies like Groupon, Zynga and Facebook when they went public. This conservativeness is also valid compared to the other companies mentioned because Twitter has lower average revenue per user compared to Facebook and also has a much smaller user base of 250 million.  Twitter says that the IPO is primarily for the company to get in more capital and thus some flexibility. The company is expected to go on an investor roadshow from Monday onwards and will list on the New York Stock Exchange in the first week of November, possibly November 6th. The company has also secured $1 billion in credit from banks which many speculate will be spent on acquisitions.

The conservative valuation of Twitter at $10.6 billion based on the estimates given above is because Twitter is intentionally trying to be conservative. There is always a chance that the company will set the price higher before the IPO after gauging positive investor interest. Twitter plans to list its stock under 'TWTR'.

Source | Reuters

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Vine has given its Android and iOS app a boost with two cool and helpful features. The 6 second video sharing app has introduced ‘Session’ and ‘Time Travel’ features to its mobile apps.

“Vine was built for one purpose: to make it easy for people to capture life in motion and share it with the world. That is the reason we built the Vine camera, and it’s why we continue to improve upon and build new tools for your creations, nurturing the balance between power and simplicity that you’ve come to expect from us”,  iOS Director Ben Sheats wrote in a blog post.

First up, ‘Session’ lets users take videos and save them for posting later. After you record, there will be a new Session button to ‘Save for later’. The new update lets users save up to 10 posts at once and you can post it later and also delete if you want. Next up is ‘Time Travel’ feature which enables you to edit videos which were kind of a drawback for Vine users. It allows user to remove, replace and reorganize a shot within a post. This can be accessed by tapping the green bar from the camera while shooting, or by tapping 'Edit' when previewing a post.

Twitter’s Vine app revolutionized video sharing with its iOS launch last January, allowing users to shoot and share 6 second clips. Instagram followed suit last summer by introducing video sharing on their platform, which allows for 15 second clips to be shared.

Vine hit 40 million registered users in August, which is significantly up from the 13 million it announced in early June. The latest update was much needed for the growing video sharing site. It might increase user engagement on the platform and help to be something more than just a social platform.

You can update the apps here: iOS and Android

Image Credits: vine

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