Twitter has announced an amazing new feature: Custom Timeline.

Now you can curate the best Tweets related to any topic and create a new timeline for that, which can be shared globally. To make the sharing part seamless, you can even create a widget which can be added on any blog or website.

I will rate it 10/10 for its awesome features and utility. Content curation is now definitely mainstream.

How to create a custom timeline on Twitter?

Custom timeline on Twitter can be created using Tweetdeck, the enormously famous tool to manage Twitter accounts, which was acquired by Twitter in 2011. Once you login to the Tweetdeck account, you can see a '+' icon in the lower right hand side. Hover your mouse over this icon and you can see label of "Custom Timeline" appearing. Click on this label, and your custom timeline is instantly created.

Once created, you can easily drag the Tweets which you consider as relevant to that timeline and keep make the timeline even richer.

If you want to search for a particular hashtag or a topic, create a new column for that and then create a custom timeline from that search column.

For example, I created a custom timeline to show some of the best posts on Trak.in. What's more, a user can easily embed the custom timeline on the web. Here is the timeline, live for you:

What is content curation and how can Twitter's custom timeline help me?

Content curation is an activity which involves collecting, organizing and displaying information related to a particular topic or interest. Examples of historical content curation include Museums and Galleries, where artifacts or creations related to a particular topic are displayed.

The person who curates this content is called a curator. For digital media and publication, there are lots of popular content curation tools available Paper.li; Themeefy; Bundlr; Scoop.it; Storify to name a few. Even Bit.ly has a feature wherein you can bundle several relevant and thematic links into one single space, and then share that bundle with others.

But when such content curation tools are available within a huge social network like Twitter, then the activity becomes really interesting.

As a content curator, you can now easily search the most relevant Tweets related to a topic, and then save the best Tweets into a new custom timeline and share it with the world.

It is upto the creative marketers now, how they can optimally use Twitter's new custom timeline for maximum effect.

It would be interesting to observe the results.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

It was soon after Motorola was bought by Google that they uprooted themselves from India completely, breaking a lot of hearts in the process. According to them, they wanted to streamline the company and the way the company was struggling, it was unavoidable.

The move however looked pretty rigid and it seemed that we won't be hearing the sound of 'Hello Moto' back in India.

There seems to be a change in the wind it seems.

It is certain the Moto G will be launched globally and with it in India as well on 13^th Nov. The phone would be its first after a few years that is being launched in India.

One can visit the facebook post by Motorola that personally invites Indians to the live feed on 13^th in Brazil on Moto-G. This surely points to the fact that there is something in store for Indians from Motorola!

According to gizbot, Motorola won't be launching the Moto G only but it would also announce Moto X internationally on that day. If that turns out to be true, then it would indeed be a great news for Motorola fans in India and would definitely signify a shift in thought in the company.

It will also be a surprising move as initially Motorola had no plans to launch the phone anywhere except US. Even Europe was not supposed to have the phone.

Gizbot apparently talked to the customer care of Motorola and they said that Motorola is working double time to launch the phone worldwide. While no price was placed on the phone it would be safe to assume that it would not be a cheap phone in any way.

Also, I do not think we will have that many options of customization as are presented to US people.

As for Moto G, it is almost certain that the phone is being launched in a few days' time and it should be a sub-20K phone in India.

It is here that it would create the biggest dent and they would not want to place it too close to Nexus 5 as well.

With the close launch of Nexus 5, Nexus 7 (2013) and Nexus 10, and now Moto G and possibly Moto X, I can't help but feel that Google is finally realizing the importance of India in the next billion they want to target. What is your take?

Is it a Motorola decision or a Google decision to come back to India?

The fight between online and offline retailers is getting murkier.

Given that online retailers are offering products at rock-bottom rates, it is getting very difficult for their offline counterparts to compete. Consumers are increasingly buying their products online and offline business is getting severely affected.

Now, offline retailers who are generally channel partners for product manufacturers, also double up as their service centres. Because of fierce competition from online vendors, these channel partners have no option but to stop selling the products, or go in losses.

So, how does manufacturer pacify their channel partners?

By telling them that they will not be responsible for any warranty support for products that have been bought online. In short, customer who has bought a product online does not have any warranty for the product.

Here is an example:

A friend of mine who is a NetGear channel partner recently got this email from the manufacturers' channel manager stating exactly the same.

Here is the email reproduced below:

Though the channel partner who got this email is an offline retailer himself, even in his opinion, this was a very surprising move by NetGear and extremely damaging from consumer's point of view.

All online retailers like Flipkart, Infibeam, Amazon and others clearly mention that the product  consumers buy online are covered by warranty offered by the manufacturer. Here is what Flipkart says when it comes to warranty for most NetGear products.

From a consumer point of view, the situation is scary because once Flipkart (or any other online store) has sold the product to you, they will obviously wash their hands off the product saying, "it is responsibility of the manufacturer".

However, as you can see from the mail given above, manufacturer will also not provide the warranty!

What does the consumer do in this case?

Trak.in iPhone 5S Diwali Free Giveaway Winner Announcement

We received fabulous response for the Diwali Giveaway that we had arranged for our  Trak.in this year and it is now time to announce our winner.

Before we name our iPhone 5S winner, we want to let all participants know that the Giveaway took into account number of points collected by each participant, along with the answers that were given to the question asked in the contest. Among the people with highest points we shortlisted 3 people with best answers, and then ultimately chose 1 winner with best answer.

And the winner is…. Nikhil Chawla

I am sure Nikhil is on the moon right now ….Hearty Congratulations to you.. This Diwali is really a #HappierDiwali for you!

Update: The Giveaway winners will be announced by November 13th 2013. We will update the post to let you know the winners

So, do you want to have a absolutely fantastic Diwali this year? Why not have a chance to win a very coveted Gorgeous iPhone 5S?

Yes, that's exactly what we are doing here for our Trak.in readers – We will be giving away an iPhone 5S.

Not many products have the power to create the sort of excitement and gripping interest like iPhones do. Every year, one date that everybody waits for with great anticipation is the day of iPhone release. From then begins a relentless wait to get hands on the device and perhaps save enough to get one.

If you are an Apple fan who goes through all these motions regularly and cannot wait to get your hands on the cold metal of a brand new iPhone 5s then November 1^st is the date you have already marked in the Calendar as the date when the new iPhone comes to India.

To help make this festive season special and brighter than ever before, we are giving you a chance to make it not just a Happy but, a #HappierDiwali. All you have to do is simply enter in your thoughts in the form of answers and stand a unique opportunity to win the device that is high on everybody's wish list.

So, go ahead and make this a #HappierDiwali for yourself or for the one you love by winning the perfect device that an iPhone 5s is.

[Note: You will need to make sure that you view the form below on the website. It may not be visible, if you are seeing it in newsletter or mobile. Click on the title to visit this page]

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This BIG news for Android users…

For those unfamiliar, CyanogenMod is a different version of Android maintained by a team- CyanogenMod. Upon its initial launch it was just a developer's way of sharing his version of Android with others. However, with time, it gained popularity and is now one of the most well-known Android OSes outside the usual UI like Samsung's Touchwhiz, HTC's Sense UI, Sony's UI etc.

Currently, the team has converted into Cyanogen Inc. and supports over 40 devices. The biggest issue with CyanogenMod till now has been that it was very difficult to install for a newbie. Even for someone who has done it more than once, the process is a tedious one. This was a major hindrance in CyanogenMod's adoption.

To counter the issue, they came up with two solutions-

1. Launch a phone with CyanogenMod.
2. Making the installation process easier.

While the first has already been implemented with a few phones with CyanogenMod along the block, they have finally started to make a move towards making the process easier in itself.

The CyanogenMod Installer can be installed directly from Google Play.

The application will work alongside a PC application (Only for Windows) and with both of them together, the phone will get the latest version of CyanogenMod without any hassles to the user. Any requirement of rooting and unlocking the bootloader will be done by the apps themselves and user can sit back and relax.

This does not mean that the pitfalls have disappeared. The warranty will still be voided as the phone is rooted. Also, the phone might still get bricked. Still, as the human intervention is a bare minimum, the process would be smoother and probability of any such thing happening should drop.

It currently supports 12 handsets with all the variants amounting to around 40 devices. If you want to know whether your phone is in the list you can check out their website here.

The thumb rule is that all the Nexus devices and the flagships of Samsung and HTC are supported. A few previous flagships might also be in the list.

If you are wondering if any of the Indian brand phones are available, they are not. Currently no Micromax, no Lava or no Karbonn on it. But, sooner rather than later they should show up, so keep a eye on that list!

Now that the process is easier than ever, the question is who should install it?

I suggest if you have crossed you warranty period and hold a device that would not be updated to the latest OS version by the company then you should consider it. If your device is on the list then it will get the latest version of OS with extra features from CyanogenMod.

People who own Samsung Galaxy SII should definitely give it a look.

One more thing of note is that the number of supported devices will increase with time. So, do check out the full list of devices. Eventually CyanogenMod would want the Cyanogen Installer to support all the devices that CyanogenMod can run on.

Links:

• CyanogenMod Installer Play Store app
• CyanogenMod PC Installer

We just covered Vodafone's half yearly financial results for 2013, and reported that revenues from data usage have exploded like never before. Vodafone had earlier slashed their charges upto 80% and this had resulted in huge increase in subscribers and revenue.

We expected some reaction from Idea; but never knew it would be so fast and so furious: Idea has announced that 2G data charges on their network would now be discounted at 90%. Previously, under the pay-as-you-go plan, Idea users paid 2 paisa per 1 KB to browse Internet on their smart phones.

From now on, the revised charges are 2 paisa per 10 KB, which means 90% of the data charges have been slashed. To start with, this revised data plan would be applicable in 10 Idea circles: Maharashtra & Goa, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Kerala, UP West and East, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh.

For 3G data usage, Idea has discounted 30% of overall charge. Previously, Idea charged 3 paisa per 10 KB, which now has been revised to 2 paisa per 10 KB. However, the revised 3G data charges are promotional in nature, and as per official communications, the new data charges are applicable till May 15, 2014 (6 months from November 15).

The new 3G data usage charges effectively means that Idea has made both 2G and 3G data available at the same price. Reliance was the first operator to start this trend, when they slashed their data usage charges by 50% this July. Earlier, for 1Gb of 3G data, Reliance users paid Rs 250; which was revised to Rs 123 for 1GB 3G usage.

Idea has 3.3 crore users who use internet on their mobiles; out of which around 40 lakh users have opted for 3G services. By making both 2G and 3G at same rate, Idea is trying to shift customers from 2G to 3G and hence, encourage them to use more data which translates to more revenue for the company.

Now, there is a full fledged price war happening in the Telecom industry. Idea, Vodafone and Reliance have made the necessary amendments to lower the data charges and make it easy for consumers to use Internet on mobile.

Only Airtel has the most expensive data plan currently available. If we take Delhi circle for Postpaid users, then 2G data on Airtel costs approximately 1 paisa for 1 KB for 2G usage and 3 paisa for 10 KB of 3G data usage.

Technology Entrepreneurs who are into the mobile apps business or mobile ecommerce sector must be keeping their fingers crossed. Cheap mobile access to millions of users all over India translates to bigger, better and more vibrant market to sell their products.

The mobile revolution in India has entered the second phase, for sure.