We all have heard and read about India’s internet and smartphone buzz for the past year. But, now reports are saying that India is all set to be the global leader when it comes to using social media as well.

According to latest eMarketer study, India is one of the fastest growing markets with the country recording the highest social networking growth of 37.4 per cent this year. Also, India is all set to have the world's largest Facebook population by 2016. The research firm said that India has an advantage as Facebook is banned in China. Indonesia and Mexico followed India with 28.7% and 21.1% growth in social network respectively.  However, the US still remains the single country with the greatest number of Facebook users, at 146.8 million this year, while India comes in a distant second.

All the three countries are also high-growth areas for Facebook,which eMarketer estimates will reach a worldwide monthly user base of 1.026 billion this year. That's a 14.2% gain on social network numbers from 2012, and double-digit growth is expected to continue for another year. By 2017, 2.33 billion people will be using social networks. However, the research firm believes that India will develop the largest Facebook population of any country in the world by 2016.

India’s social network penetration currently stands at only 7.7 percent, below the average of 22.7 percent worldwide. On the other end of the scale, the Netherlands was the most socially-connected country with a penetration rate of 63.5 percent. Norway follows just behind at 63.3 percent, and Sweden at 56.4 percent.

Image Source | zdnet

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While Pinterest is thought to be majorly used for pinning and collecting some very good visual content, the company thinks that it can expand its offerings even more. After they studied last year's data, the company realized that a lot of their users were creating more boards having to do with their vacations and the places that they had discovered. While this is a superb use of the platform, the site itself is not built to take advantage of this behavior. This is why the company started working on a new feature called ‘Place Pins’.

The company says that Place Pins are designed to provide beautiful travel magazine like content by using a map. Once you create your own place pin, you can share it with your friends. The place pins are accessible both on desktop and the smartphone. The pins can have details like addresses, contact info and other information dealing with the places in particular.

Making a Place Board:

While making a board on Pinterest, all you have to do to convert it into a Place Pin is to select 'Add a Map' while creating the board. Previous boards can also be converted into Place Pins by editing the settings and selecting 'Add a Map'.

Collaborating on Boards:

If you are going on a group outing/vacation, it only makes sense that collaboration be built into the feature. The friends you select to collaborate can make their own edits on this board and add places and other information.

Sample Place Pins:

Pinterest has also build a collection of Place Pins so that you can understand how you can build similar and better boards by looking at them. Here is a link.

Implications:

While Pinterest has known to be very addictive for collecting and viewing visual content, this feature makes all the content very actionable. These Place Pins can help travelers and other sightseeing users to get the very best of curated information which is highly relevant. This could be a real help and it does look very beautiful doing it. With this feature the company is taking a step into travel content curation and it could slowly expand into other sectors which require discovery and curation, such as restaurants, museums, concerts, etc.

Source | Pinterest Blog

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International Business Machines (IBM) wants to expand its foot-print in the cloud based services market & has focused its attention on India.

After suffering major losses to Amazon in the rapidly emerging cloud services business, IBM wants to enhance its market share by looking at the global market, shared Sudhanshu Bhandari, senior analyst at Forrester Research, "After losing the federal contract, IBM is trying to win lost ground and build thought leadership globally." IBM recently lost US$ 600 Million (Rs. 3,700 Crores) Central Intelligence contract to Amazon. The company appealed, but even the courts favored Amazon.

Why is IBM so interested in cloud based services?
Globally, the PC market has been shrinking at an alarming rate. Smartphones and tablets have been eroding the sales of PCs in general, to quite a large extent. Such a situation has forced multiple companies to either join the smartphone making companies & compete on their turf or think of other avenues.

Cloud based services is a newly emerging market which requires expertise in components making & server technology, both of which are IBM's forte. The company recently took-over SoftLayer, a significant player in the cloud services market, to get a head-start. With SoftLayer, IBM wants to enter the cloud service market with formidable force, shared Bhandari, "Over the last few quarters, IBM has struggled and continued to see a drop in the revenue from traditional business. With SoftLayer, they are trying to take the public cloud story forward."

Amazon is a formidable player by itself. With multiple initiatives, the company has nearly cornered the market with estimated revenue of about US$ 3 Billion from cloud computing services alone. But, given India's vast untapped potential & poor dissipation of technology, cloud computing is certainly a dependable market where traditional expertise of IBM will certainly come in handy.

Many companies have come to the same conclusion about India & are fiercely trying to make a mark here. Let's see if IBM can succeed. What do you think?

Image Source | Inside Cloud

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With an aim to bring 50 million women online in India within a year, Google has launched the ‘Helping Women Get Online’ campaign. The internet giant says that with 200 million internet users in India and growing, we are about to become the second largest internet market in the world, surpassing the US.

The initiative will focus on creating awareness about the benefits of internet for women, educate women to use the internet to improve their lives and work with partners to enable easy internet access points for women in the country. Also, it aims to bridge the gender digital divide by providing women with easier access to technology, the company said.

Giving insights about the Indian online population Google India MD Rajan Anandan said that, ”India has over 200 million Internet users and the number is growing. India is on its way to become the second-largest Internet market overtaking US. But, only one-third or about 60 million of the online users are women”.

The "Helping women get online" initiative is largely centered around its website www.hwgo.com, which provides step-by-step information in both Hindi and English on the basics of how to use a computer and access the web.

In addition to providing useful information such as computer basics, internet skills and details of how to use chat and email services, the website includes a range of video stories designed to highlight the benefits of the internet to women. In addition to this, there is even a toll-free hotline 1800 41 999 77  for further information.

The program is also said to be supported by Intel, HUL and Axis Bank. Intel is also launching a mobile app called "Easy Step" for women which would be available on Google Play Store. Furthermore, Google has teamed up with companies like Johnson & Johnson, Indiatimes.com, Healthkart.com and Babyoye.com. These companies will create and share content relevant for Indian women on the http://www.hwgo.com website.

Check out the video below that shows Google’s pilot project of the "Helping women get online" initiative conducted in Bhilwara, Rajasthan.

Image Source | www.hwgo.com

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With almost 1.2 Billion subscribers Facebook may boast about having the largest cluster of online population. However, multiple networks which specialize in selective segments appear to be challenging the social network's supremacy.

Quite recently we witnessed how internet based cross–platform instant messaging platform Whatsapp was threatening Facebook's user-engagement duration. Evidently photo sharing app Snapchat seems to be getting much more photos uploaded via its network than Facebook.

According to a Snapchat representative, the platform's daily uploads currently stand at 400 million snaps. This figure includes both photos and videos. Snapchat, initially offered only image upload, but videos were added in December last year. This total exceeds Facebook's count of 350 million daily uploads.

Hasn't acquisition of Instagram helped?
Facebook had famously acquired Instagram for a lofty figure of US$ 1 Billion. But the network runs it as a separate service and hasn't yet amalgamated the same within its ecosystem, though it has developed quite a few features that were 'inspired' from Instagram. Instagram presently has about 55 million daily uploads. If one adds this number to Facebook's own, then the count climbs higher than Snapchat, but by a relatively thin margin.

Snapchat's rise appears phenomenal. From 200 million in June to 350 million in September to 400 million in November, Snapchat appears to have cornered the image sharing segment of the social media phenomenon. No wonder then, its founder Evan Spiegel was recently approached by Facebook for a possibility of acquisition. Insiders report the figure offered was a mind–boggling US$ 3 Billion (thrice the amount FB paid for Instagram). However, Spiegel not just rejected Facebook's 3 Billion Dollars offer, but even turned down Google's 4 Billion Dollars offer and said no to Chinese internet giant Tencent for a buyout attempt.

Photo and video sharing is a critical aspect for social media. Mere text isn't able to bring out the flair and emotions. Hence social media companies that have rightly been able to corner this segment are always in demand. Though Facebook has very healthy numbers, it usage is at risk and the company will surely have to think of ways to boost the waning interest. Is Snapchat its salvation?

Image Source | bgr

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Do you remember the pre tablet and smartphone era when you had a PC and listened to MP3 songs on it?
If you can, you will surely remember that listening to your favorite music in late 90′s was done on Winamp. The once-ubiquitous digital audio player is bidding adieu after a 15 year long stint.

Referred to as one of the oldest and most reliable software, Winamp will shut down on December 20 this year. The announcement made by AOL on the company’s website said that the desktop client will no longer be available for download. Developed by former University of Utah college students in 1997 Justin Frankel and Dmitry Boldyrev, Winamp faced a hard time competing with upcoming players like VLC, Windows Media Player and others. It was then purchased by AOL in 1999 from Nullsoft.

Winamp was known for its wide ranging multi-format audio file support, extensible plug-ins and skins, graphical sound visualization, playlist support and media library features. It released Android and Mac versions in 2010 and 2011, respectively but never managed to gain the same popularity as its Windows desktop client.

Well I think that time, tide and in fact technology waits for no one. There is always going to be a better version of every app, browser, gadgets as we move ahead. So all we can do is enjoy the services to the fullest while we can. Anyway, in case of Winamp we suggest that you download the the media player as you have a month. After all you and I have spent our 90′s on this app. Also, we can surely say that Winamp was a brilliant piece of software that we would want our next generation to at least take a peek at. Will you download the media player for old times sake? I know I will!

Image Source | Pocket Lint

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Google has launched a standalone Newsstand App for Android. The internet giant has combined Google Currents App and Play Magazines for the same. The Play Newsstand will provide access to digital versions of worldwide popular print magazines, along with content from across the web on various subjects ranging from sports to entertainment. It currently features about 1,900 free and paid publications like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Esquire, Elle, Vanity Fair, People, Wired, The Guardian and so on. For the first time, a users can subscribe to these renowned newspapers via the Newstand App.

“You can subscribe to magazines, newspapers, blogs and news sites and we will format and optimize them all for reading on your tablet or phone. With the swipe of a finger, you can browse full length articles, with beautiful images, audio and video right inside the app. You can access these articles even when you're offline or bookmark them to read later“, Google announced in a company blog post.

As soon as you launch the app, you will see the ‘Read Now’  button that offers all the breaking news, trending articles from publications you subscribe to and other items that Newsstand thinks you will enjoy based on your reading history. Each article gets automatically tagged with a single subject and clicking on those tags offers you more articles.

Users will be able to subscribe to new sources in the app and for paid publications in the Google Play store. The app also supports offline reading as it automatically downloads the content while you are reading. Moreover, users can also bookmark a place in longer articles and sync up all your data between multiple versions.

Newsstand feels like Google’s answer to Flipboard. The 75 million users social magazine has been on the forefront of the news apps. But, the arrival of the Google’s Newstand app might change the status quo. For now, the Newstand app is only coming to Android however, as per reports from Engadget, Newsstand will arrive on iOS next year as a replacement for the existing Google Currents iOS app. Over the next few days, users in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia (that is, all the countries where the old Google Play Magazines app was available) will be automatically upgraded to the new Newsstand app.

Image Source | Official Android

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Windows Phone users, the wait is finally over. Instagram has landed on the Windows Phone platform. The popular photo and video sharing app was missing from the Windows phone platform for a long time now. The 150 million monthly active user photo-sharing social network, landed on iOS three years ago and on Android in April 2012. Instagram had announced last month that it will soon launch on Windows platform but its rival Vine was quicker and made its way to the Windows store last week.

Instagram announced the launch on its blog saying that  it wanted to "make Instagram available to people with Windows Phones as quickly as possible,". However, it must be noted that the app is in its beta stage and therefore lacks some of the important features like video sharing, photo tagging and in-app camera capture. We feel that these are the basic features which make the Instagram app so popular and lack of these features is surely going to upset the Windows users. Furthermore, the app only works with Windows Phone 8, hard luck Windows Phone 7 users.

So what does the Instagram app for Windows 8  support?
Well for starters users can add filters to photos that are already present on your phone. Also, the app supports Windows Live Tiles that gives app a different look from its Android or iOS apps. The navigation buttons have been moved to the top of the app while the filters remain at the bottom of the screen, but the rotate, add border, tilt-shift, and enhance buttons are now located at the top.

Windows can now safely say that most of the top apps are available on its platform as well. Of the top 10 most download Apple apps of all time, all are now available for Windows. (That list includes Facebook, Pandora, Skype, Words with Friends, The Weather Channel, Twitter, YouTube, Google Search and Temple Run.) As of this week, there are now 190,000 apps in the Windows Phone Store, with about 500 new Windows Phone apps being added to the store daily, according to Microsoft officials. Along with Instagram, Waze also made its way to the Windows store.

You can download the Instagram app for Windows here.

Image Source | Slashgear

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When Microsoft said that it had reached a deal with Nokia to buy its devices business for $7.3 billion, it was just a preliminary announcement. A lot still depended on the Nokia shareholders, as they would vote on whether the acquisition terms were agreeable. That vote has happened today and a whopping majority (99%) of the shareholders have voted for the acquisition and the doors are open for Microsoft to assimilate Nokia's device business.

The vote happened at the general meeting for Nokia shareholders in Helsinki. There is still one last stop before the acquisition can go through and that is international regulatory approval which is expected to be completed by early next year. While this deal is favorable for Microsoft, Nokia will be left with its technology, patents and little else. There are worries as to what Nokia will venture onto.

The shareholder approval is the end of a great run during which Nokia took the mobile world by storm and introduced many new innovations in the field of mobile phones and communication. Post this sale to Microsoft, the company's road seems dangerous and uncertain. It may also have been a blow to Finnish national pride in the company because of it being one of the major breakouts in technology from that country.

The company is now focusing on building high speed data infrastructure for large mobile carriers. The company is also focusing on improving its mapping technology which runs in 80% of the world's automotive navigation systems. It also has various other intellectual properties that it can license to other players in the market.

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Fork Media, the company being incubated by Ant Farm has announced the launch of two new advertising platforms called Brand Press and Impulse. These new platforms have different capabilities. Brand Press is the company's native advertising platform and Impulse will deliver capabilities for image monetization.

Brand Press is supposed to give marketers access to credible distribution channels and at the same time ensure that performance of this branded content can be measured. The company says that the service provides reach, automation and relevant insights to marketers. The company says that with this native advertising platform, publishers can allow direct flow of branded content alongside their editorial.

Impulse on the other hand monetizes images by recognizing them and their context and placing appropriate ads near that space. This the company says will get the most engagement out of users. The company says that its image recognition technologies understands whether a particular image would be brand safe. Since this is an automated process, there are risks of accidentally mixing up in a way which could be ironic, funny etc.

The company was launched earlier this year and is one of the first companies to come out of the new hybrid startup incubator called Ant Farm which is the being helmed by Rishi Khiani, the former CEO of Times Internet. It has worked with IDBI Bank, Microsoft, Lufthansa, ICICI Lombard and others. Its publisher partner network helps it deliver branded content to around 45 million digital readers. Some of these publishing partners include Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Zee News, DNA, Headlines Today, Live Mint and others.

Website | Fork Media

Source | NextBigWhat

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Twitter has updated iOS and Android app with much awaited feature of search filters. “We are updating our iOS and Android apps to make it easier to discover what's happening on Twitter”, Twitter announced in a company blog post. It enables users to toggle between all relevant tweets and the most popular ‘Top Tweets’.

The update also lets you filter by different media types, such as photos and videos. This also means that searching of Vine videos is easy due to the filters. There's also an option to see tweets only from the people you follow. Another new feature allows you to find trending TV topics and local events via a new trending timeline in the ‘Discover’ section of the app.

It's an interesting addition that will bring even more relevant conversations to the forefront of the app. To access trending TV shows, users can simply browse through the list to pull up trends related to TV shows and local Last week Twitter launched custom timeline feature that shows curated tweets. The microblogging site also plans to encrypt direct messages. Last month it also updated web, android and iOS apps with photo and video preview in ‘Timeline’.

The updated version is available on Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store. 

Image Source | Android Community

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Estranged Canadian company BlackBerry is now contemplating tying–up with telecom companies to sell devices which come bundled with service packages.

The company is currently in talks with multiple telecom service providers in India for a possibility to sell devices that are bundled with attractive data plans, revealed Sunil Lalvani, India MD, BlackBerry, "We are actively talking to key carriers. It is a work-in-progress."

Why would BlackBerry attempt selling phones locked with carriers?
Selling phones that are initially priced cheap, but come carrier–locked, is nothing new in the western worlds. But Indians have traditionally shelled–out a lot more to buy phones that are free from any contracts and these phones can easily switch SIMs from different service providers. BlackBerry has always premium priced its handsets.

Quite recently, Reliance Communications (RCom) introduced the concept of owning one of the costliest handsets; the iPhone 5C and 5S by shelling out as little as Rs. 2300 or Rs. 2800. Buyers who purchase the latest iPhone from RCom are pampered with unlimited data and voice minutes, though they have to agree to be part of RCom's network for 2 years till which the contract is binding. Despite the customer ending up paying a lot more, the services component surely sweeten the deal, coupled with the fact that an iPhone 5S costs upwards of Rs. 50,000 in India and Rs. 2800 doesn't seem much in comparison.

Blackberry hasn't been doing well. Though the company famously attempted to go private again, its plans didn't materialize completely since the favored company rejected to completely buy BlackBerry. Hence BlackBerry was forced to suggest that it may be pulling out of the hardware side of the business and may offer software and services to the enterprise side only.

But with this announcement, it appears the company is re–attempting to gain a foothold in the increasingly competitive handset market. Additionally, bundling data services allows the company to easily deploy its Secure Enterprise Environment, more commonly known as BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). Furthermore BlackBerry recently debuted, its iconic BBM for Andoird as well as iOS. Special data privileges for BBM could further boost its usage and ensure some future revenue streams for the ailing company. What do you think?

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Mobicule Technologies is going to help entertainment conglomerate Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) with its Ad Inventory Management. SEN has tied up with Mobicule to enhance efficiency of its sales workforce by offering them real–time information about ad slots on multiple SEN's TV Channels.

How will Mobicule assist in improving SEN's sales force efficiency?
SEN has multiple TV channels that it owns, manages and operates. Advertising on these TV based entertainment properties is its chief revenue source. The network relied on a highly archaic method of keeping a watchful eye on the available ad slots. This older model of Sony Entertainment Network included a coordinator, who would assess the ad inventory and communicate the relevant information to sales team through daily print outs or updates. Needless to say such a technique wasn't accurate to the minute and was slow in generating and regenerating information about vacant or available ad slots and their respective prices. Mobicule has developed a cross–platform application that will collate, segregate and organize the relevant information in real–time and offer an up-to-the-minute updated status and statistics to the sales–force, confirmed a statement from Sony Entertainment,

"This application will enable Sony's sales force to generate the available advertisements Spots inventory report and view the same on BlackBerry, Android & iOS devices, thereby increasing workforce efficiency."

The application is plugged–in directly to the core of the backend system, providing all required data to employees via their handheld devices. Further this platform is interactive and allows the sales–team to book or block a slot and the same is reflected instantaneously to others marketing personnel. This eliminates duplication or double–booking. Essentially, the app allows for optimum utilization of available resources and ensures transparency in operation, eventually guaranteeing a seamless operational experience. In addition to making processes quicker, the data is displayed in interactive and graphical representations, making the app user friendly and easy to comprehend.

The entertainment industry has been getting a lot of attention. Majority of the same was in the direction of digital interface, meaning, a lot of content was being channeled towards the online and mobile platforms. However, this time around a mobile app and software company has ensured the TV media clocks higher efficiency.

Image Source | mobicule

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Google has finally launched latest Nexus 5 smartphone and next generation Nexus 7 (2013) tablet in India. Both the devices are available in India on Google Play Store for Indian consumers. To buy from Play store, a consumer has to use a credit card registered with the Google Play store.

The Nexus 5 which runs on Google’s latest operating system Android KitKat 4.4 comes in two variants — with 16 GB and 32 GB memories. The 16 GB version is priced at Rs 28,999 and the 32 GB at Rs 32,999. Manufactured by the South Korean tech major LG, Nexus 5 made its global debut just a couple of weeks ago. Google’s 2013 flagship smartphone sports 4.95-inch full HD IPS display with pixel density of 445 ppi (pixels per inch). It is powered by 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 series quad-core processor and has 2GB of RAM.

Next up is the Nexus 7  which is a co-branded tablet developed by Google and Taiwanese PC maker Asus. The tablet that was unveiled in late July this year features a 7.02-inch 1920x1200p IPS display with Gorilla Glass, Android 4.3 (Android 4.4 update already available). It is powered by 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. The Nexus 7 also comes with 5MP rear camera, 1.2MP front camera, NFC and 3950 mAh battery. The prices start from Rs 20,999 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only variant. The 32GB variant is available for Rs Es 23,999. Only the 32GB LTE variant is available for Rs 27.999.

We feel that both the devices by Google have been priced aggressively and possess the power to create a buzz in the smartphone and tablet market.

Image Source | bgr & appstorm

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