Xbox One, the latest series of gaming console developed by Microsoft has created a new record in the Xbox history: Over 1 million units were sold within 24 hours of its launch on November 22, 2013.

Xbox is an iconic gaming console series, which was first introduced in the year 2001 by Microsoft. The inventor of this console was Atari Jaguar, which ceased production in 1996 after selling 24 million units. In the year 2005, Microsoft introduced Xbox 360 which has sold more than 77 million units as of April, 2013. The successor to Xbox 360 is Xbox One, which has broken all previous Xbox records by selling more a million units in the first 24 hours.

Fans from all over the world lined up at Microsoft Store since midnight in order to become the first one to grab a unit; a scene rarely seen with Microsoft product launches and more or less associated with Apple launches. But when it comes to Xbox series, then it has some serious fan following.

Xbox One was simultaneously launched in 13 countries, including UK, and this marked the biggest ever launch of this gaming console series. In several countries, twice as many Xbox One units were sold compared to Xbox 360 which was launched 8 years ago. Clearly the fan following of Microsoft's gaming series has increased by leaps and bounds in all these years.

Out of 16 gaming titles which came with Xbox One launch, 10 of them managed to break into UK's top 40 Gaming chart. As per the official Microsoft's blog,

• Over 60 million zombies have been killed in the game "Dead Rising 3"
• Over 3.6 million miles have been covered in the game "Forza motorsport 5"
• Over 8.5 million enemies have been defeated in the game "Ryse: Son of Rome"
• And more

Here are the top rated games for Xbox One series, updated as per the current ratings of players.

Xbox One costs $500 for one unit, and includes not only games but also Kinect integration, Voice commands, Video conferencing, Blu-Ray and other media functions.

But Few Fans Were Disappointed

As soon as the console was launched globally, complains started arriving that the units are not working properly. Maximum issues came from the defect in Blu-Ray drives, as users complained that their drives are not working. Some of the fans reported that there is a strange grinding sound coming in from these drives, which is making the overall experience bad.

In some cases, there was a complete hardware failure as the machine stopped functioning.

These issues had become so widespread that Microsoft had to intervene as they made an official statement, "The issue is affecting a very small number of Xbox One customers. We're working directly with those affected to get a replacement console to them as soon as possible through our advance exchange program. Rest assured, we are taking care of our customers."

But overall, Xbox One is a bumper hit, all over the world.

Retailers have declared that their stocks were finished within hours, and SOS has been sent to Microsoft's headquarters to deliver more units, as there is 'unprecedented' demand for this latest gaming console.

If you are a game lover, then what are your views on this latest offering from Microsoft? Will you rate it higher than Playstation 4 which was also launched last week, and which also managed to sell one million units in 24 hours?

Please do share your views!

Last year when Google first announced it's Shopping festival called GOSF or the "Great Online Shopping Festival", there was nothing great about it. Infact, I came to a conclusion in the end that it was merely a farce, something that is rare when it comes to Google doing it!

Last year's GOSF event happened on 12/12/12.

If you are not aware of GOSF; It is a single day event, in which various Indian ecommerce sites participate and offer some very attractive discounts on single or multiple products. Very similar to what "Black Friday" deals are in the US.

When Google originally announced it last year, there was a huge buzz created and many consumers thought that Google was trying to create a day in India, just like what Black Friday is in US. Unfortunately, the deals were no-deals at all. Infact, out of over 100 sites that participated, not a single one had deals where one could say "WoW".

Now, coming to this year – Google has not made any official announcements as yet. If you visit GOSF.in, you will be greeted with simple text message stating "GOSF is coming soon".

Interestingly though, many Indian ecommerce sites have already started setting up their GOSF pages. Flipkart has it, Jabong has it, Myntra has it, Freecultr has it and smaller sites like Voylla are also showing it!

Though we are not sure, unlike last year, it seems that GOSF will run for 2 or 3 days between 11th and 13th December of this year.

While only a few sites are showing GOSF pages right now, I am sure nearly all Indian online stores will participate.

Out of curiosity, we checked if Amazon India will participate, and yes, sure enough they may also have something. They already have a placeholder page at amazon.in/gosf. Though it does not show anything right now, I am sure something will start showing up there soon enough.

Not Like Last Year

I am really hoping that GOSF this is year not a dud as it was last year. Ecommerce sites need to really offer some great deals on those 1 or 2 days of festival, so that people will wait for it every year. If the same story is repeated this year as well, I am not sure if anyone will even blink an eye, if it happens again in the future.

What do you think?

Government owned banks like SBI are always looked upon a like boring place to be in. A behemoth in banking but a novice in innovation. So was it thought. But not after you read this.

Way back in July 2009, the Reserve Bank of India had permitted cash withdrawal at Point-of-Sale but the service had not taken off owing to various reasons including lack of clarity on processing fee structures.

Now, in line with RBI's proposition to allow cash withdrawals through prepaid cards issued by banks from point of sale terminals, India's biggest lender has come up with the Cash@POS facility across the country from last week, that lets merchant shops act as ATM counters.

Next time when you are in need of some quick petty cash, just walk into any of the shop that accepts credit card payments. If you are a customer of SBI or its associate banks, you can use the machine to withdraw cash up to Rs 1,000 from your savings account using your debit or credit card.

This helps customers to withdraw about Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 per debit card per day at any of these point of sale (PoS). This includes customers of State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Mysore.

There is no such thing as a free lunch – For now, a convenience fee of one per cent of the transaction amount will be levied on the cardholder which can be anything in the range of Rs 7.50 to Rs 10.

Does the Merchant benefit? Merchants will be paid an incentive of Rs 5 for every successful transaction along with the cash paid to customers.

SBI speak – "Though the facility will be made applicable to all debit cards issued in India, to start with, we are rolling out the facility with SBI group debit cards. SBI, which already has over one lakh POS terminals, will deploy an additional 40,000 more exclusive terminals before the end of this fiscal year," said P.V. Rajamani, AGM, merchant acquiring business, of the bank. "In Tamil Nadu alone, there will be 15,000 POS terminals during the same time."

Why start with SBI? As on June-end SBI, had over 20 crore customers and had issued 14 crore debit cards and accounted for 29 per cent of India's total 1,23,705 ATMs.

Necessity is the mother of invention – RBI had instructed banks since years to concentrate on installing ATMs in rural areas. Withdrawal of cash from such POS releases the pressure on banks to speed up the ATM installation process, which is costly and cumbersome too.

Once this is successful, and we have no reason to say it won't be, will private banks follow? Or will they come up with some more unique way of dispensing cash? Lets see…

Adobe seems to be now wholly embracing subscription based business model, and it firmly wants to implement the same across every verticals.

In a latest development, it has been revealed that its much acclaimed as well as criticized Photography Bundle is now open to all for a monthly subscription charge of Rs 499/mo ($9.99/m globally) This is a limited time offer, and will expire on December 2, 2013.

You can sign up for this program right here.

What Will You Get For Rs 499/mo?

In this special Photography Program, you can get access to Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5, subscription to Behance Pro-site and 20 GB of Cloud space along with access to training resources and all the latest updates and patches.

Lightroom 5 is an easy tool, developed for photographers who want to digitally edit their photographs without being overwhelmed by the features of Photoshop. It has all the necessary tools which are required by a professional photographer. This is also available as standalone product.

Behance is like a social networking site for creative people, where you can upload your latest designs and photographs and have a conversation around them. It can also be used as a portfolio by photographers and graphic designers.

Subscription Based Model Is The Future?

Adobe previously sold software in the traditional way: users bought licenses of its products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects etc and kept on using them until the license expired. Back in May, 2012, it changed its business model, and introduced the Creative Cloud, which enabled users to subscribe to all these software for a monthly charge of $50 per month (Rs. 2700 in India). This included access to all their software plus various online services like Cloud storage and online training manuals.

When this new subscription based model was introduced, there was hue and cry from every sector, as the existing users didn't want to pay extra for the new subscription and wanted the old license method to be retained. There was even a Change.org petition filed against this step, with around 44,000 people supporting the cause.

But Adobe proved its detractors and nay-sayers wrong. Subscription based model was a big hit, as its total customer base crossed 1 million, raising its stock prices and promising further growth. There were several inherent advantages in choosing this subscription based model, and Adobe was right in its calculations.

To further promote the subscription based model, and to lure photographers into their network, Adobe introduced the Photography Program in September, 2013, wherein they offered Photoshop, Lightroom, Behance, 20 GB Cloud Space and Online training manuals for those, who had previously purchased Photoshop CS3 or higher version.

And now, in the month of November, they have opened this offer for all, irrespective of whether you owned any previous version of Photoshop or not.

Will you choose this new subscription based offer from Adobe or the old license based purchase was better? Do you believe that subscription model will survive the market? Please share your views right here!

[Hat Tip: Suraj Jain]