Monday, December 31, 2012
Cyprus Mistry - Tata's new Chairman
After Ratan Tata, Cyrus P Mistry is the Chairman of the following:
Tata Industries
Tata Steel
Tata Motors
Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Power
Tata Teleservices
Indian Hotels
Tata Global Beverages
Tata Chemicals
Tata Steel
Tata Motors
Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Power
Tata Teleservices
Indian Hotels
Tata Global Beverages
Tata Chemicals
Top Apps 2012 (Unknown Review)
The mobile ecosystem is vast and in recent times, the apps vertical has seen a rapid upsurge. Gone are the days when a mobility company required hundreds of resources, large amounts of infrastructure and powerful corporate contacts to run. Today, a single person or a small team working from their respective homes, can build a successful mobile company in the app vertical. In the words of the Investor and Serial entrepreneur, Ravi Gururaj, “You can make your millions by an app without ever having to take a flight!”
Here are YourStory, we have had the absolute pleasure of having reviewed and written about some amazing apps from India, which have the potential of taking over the world. Some of them are already living up to their potential by securing funding and acquiring a massive user base. After much deliberation, we have brought it down to 10 apps, which deserve to be mentioned in our end of the year note. 2012 belonged to the following apps -
An app solving the problem of app discovery would have been deemed as absurd, but Hubbl is just that. With a few hundred thousand downloads under its belt, this app allows you to discover new apps. It learns your likes and dislikes from your social graphs and is supported by the iHub platform which we will soon write about. Very soon.
A part of the current batch of 500 Startups, 360 degrees is almost an instagram for panoramic shots. Despite having the panoramic shot feature in the stock android camera itself, its social and sharing functions along with being a very good panoramic shot app itself, 360 degrees has close to a million users. We haven’t had the chance to review this yet, but social-photo apps have definitely pulled a few surprises this past year.
SoLoMo never looked as good as it does in NowFloats. This tastefully designed app is a location based social network and a local deals and business discovery platform. There have been many apps in the this category that we have reviewed, but this one was by the best to use. It needs more users for it to work in some areas, but in the age of the apps, nothing can stop an app with a great design from becoming successful.
Our very own Tech30 company, Intouch app from Volare is a contact management app which works across smartphone platforms. Having only launched a month back, the app has seen considerable downloads and now manages over a million contacts. With phone manufacturers providing better and better alternatives, IntouchApp can rid you of the worry of having to transfer your contacts.
Customer loyalty has seen a compatible partner in mobile apps and delight circle is the leading app in this category. With aggressive marketing and a great app itself, Delight Circle can be used to find deals, collect loyalty points and redeem them at many outlets across India, including marquee retail chains, such as Reliance.
It is easy to discount what this Q-Prize winning app does. It makes beautiful presentations for you. Once the text is entered into the app, Deck provides preset slide templates with pre-programmed animations for the user to choose from and formats it automatically. This not only makes great presentations, but also allows making presentations on mobile devices complete and easy.
A potential Whatsapp killer, Hike’s emphasis on design is immaculate. Made in delhi, the app has shown a tenfold growth in a few months and is now being slowly adopted in many countries around the world. Along with IM messaging, the app also provides free SMS functionality, which is user pleaser. With over a 100,000 downloads, Hike is a great messaging app to use.
There is a large emphasis on localized news and Paperboy is one the best looking apps in this category to come from India. A beautiful interface and an easy to navigate UX, the app has comprehensive Indian content on it. For a great user experience and functions that optimize the apps performance despite Indian network conditions, check out Paperboy.
WooMe enables customer engagement through advertisements on TV and Radio. From pushing deals to running contests, WooMe comes alive when a TV or Radio advertisement is running. Having tied up with some big brands like Pepsodent and MTV Roadies in 2012, it is a going to be a very interesting 2013 for WooMe.
A Siri-like app that doesn’t talk back, Maluuba is the voice assistant for the Indian. It completely understands accents and has a minimal and easy to use interface which you can read more of in our review of the app. The app runs across different versions of Android, providing the voice support of 4.1 to devices running lesser versions. If you’re into talking to your phone (literally) this is for you.
courtesy : YourStory
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Electronic Cigarettes
Smoking causes more deaths than alcohol, cocaine, crystal meth and other recreational drugs put together. Cigarettes contain over a dozen carcinogens and 1 out of every 3 cancer-related deaths is caused due to tobacco products. Smokers even whilst accepting the hazardous effects of smoking simply don’t have the will power or gumption to quit. There are various smoking cessation methods that help smokers quit including nicotine patches, gums and e-cigarettes where the underlying principle is to give addicts the nicotine “kick” without the harmful carcinogens found in tobacco. The most popular one is the electronic cigarette or the E-cig.
What’s an e-cig?
An electronic cigarette is a device that mimics the entire smoking process by producing a mist which has the same sensation (sometimes the same flavour too) of smoking. The concept of an electronic cigarette has been around since the 60s but tobacco consumption wasn’t really considered hazardous back then and it took until 2003 for the first smokeless e-cigarette to hit the market.
Electronic cigarettes manufacturers claim that they are like real cigarettes except that there are no hazardous health implications because there is no combustion, no tobacco and no smoking. Also since there is no passive smoking, second hand smoke and pollution due to butt litter or smoke.
What’s in an e-cig?
The e-cigarette basically consists of three parts: Cartridge, Atomizer and Power supply
The cartridge’s a mouthpiece (like a cigarette’s butt) that usually holds the liquid that is to be vaporized. The atomizer serves as a heating element and vaporizes the liquid and each of them contains a power supply like a chargeable plug, USB drive or batteries.
An e-cigarette produces nicotine infused vapour and though it looks like smoke is actually atomised air. Some e-cigs replace this nicotine vapour with other flavours like vanilla, chocolate, etc. though certain anti-smoking groups feel this could encourage minors to smoke. As a smoking cessation tool some manufactures even look to replicate the flavour of particular brands like Marlboro, Camel, etc.
Are they really less harmful?
E-cigs are primary used as a smoking replacement or a smoking cessation device to help smokers quit though the lack of studies and its relative novelty make it hard to judge its health effects. According to United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), known carcinogens were detected into the nicotine-cartridges and there were also concerns it could be marketed to younger people. However FDA methods have been derided in various journals for lack of evidence and which claimed that the nicotine content was a lot lower than actual cigarettes as were the health hazards.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on the other hand have voiced their opinion that though e-cigs are usually marketed as devices for nicotine replacement therapy there were no studies to back up that claim and has refused to endorse the device.
Research carried out at the University of East London suggests that nicotine content doesn’t seem to be of central importance but other smoking related mannerisms like taste, vapour resembling smoke and hand movements helps reduce discomfort related with tobacco abstinence in the short term.
In an online survey conducted by the University of Alberta, School of Public Health in 2009 among 303 smokers, it was found that e-cigarette substitution for tobacco cigarettes resulted in reduced health problems, the kind that usually ails smokers (less cough, improved ability to exercise, -improved sense of taste and smell).
Conclusion
Although there isn’t conclusive evidence to suggest that e-cigs are completely harmless at least all the research studies suggest that they and are definitely less harmful than traditional cigarettes. They also provide smokers with the means to quit by mimicking the mannerisms of long time users right from the hand movements, inhaling and the atomised vapour that imitates smoke.
Courtesy : India Health
What’s an e-cig?
An electronic cigarette is a device that mimics the entire smoking process by producing a mist which has the same sensation (sometimes the same flavour too) of smoking. The concept of an electronic cigarette has been around since the 60s but tobacco consumption wasn’t really considered hazardous back then and it took until 2003 for the first smokeless e-cigarette to hit the market.
Electronic cigarettes manufacturers claim that they are like real cigarettes except that there are no hazardous health implications because there is no combustion, no tobacco and no smoking. Also since there is no passive smoking, second hand smoke and pollution due to butt litter or smoke.
What’s in an e-cig?
The e-cigarette basically consists of three parts: Cartridge, Atomizer and Power supply
The cartridge’s a mouthpiece (like a cigarette’s butt) that usually holds the liquid that is to be vaporized. The atomizer serves as a heating element and vaporizes the liquid and each of them contains a power supply like a chargeable plug, USB drive or batteries.
An e-cigarette produces nicotine infused vapour and though it looks like smoke is actually atomised air. Some e-cigs replace this nicotine vapour with other flavours like vanilla, chocolate, etc. though certain anti-smoking groups feel this could encourage minors to smoke. As a smoking cessation tool some manufactures even look to replicate the flavour of particular brands like Marlboro, Camel, etc.
Are they really less harmful?
E-cigs are primary used as a smoking replacement or a smoking cessation device to help smokers quit though the lack of studies and its relative novelty make it hard to judge its health effects. According to United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), known carcinogens were detected into the nicotine-cartridges and there were also concerns it could be marketed to younger people. However FDA methods have been derided in various journals for lack of evidence and which claimed that the nicotine content was a lot lower than actual cigarettes as were the health hazards.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on the other hand have voiced their opinion that though e-cigs are usually marketed as devices for nicotine replacement therapy there were no studies to back up that claim and has refused to endorse the device.
Research carried out at the University of East London suggests that nicotine content doesn’t seem to be of central importance but other smoking related mannerisms like taste, vapour resembling smoke and hand movements helps reduce discomfort related with tobacco abstinence in the short term.
In an online survey conducted by the University of Alberta, School of Public Health in 2009 among 303 smokers, it was found that e-cigarette substitution for tobacco cigarettes resulted in reduced health problems, the kind that usually ails smokers (less cough, improved ability to exercise, -improved sense of taste and smell).
Conclusion
Although there isn’t conclusive evidence to suggest that e-cigs are completely harmless at least all the research studies suggest that they and are definitely less harmful than traditional cigarettes. They also provide smokers with the means to quit by mimicking the mannerisms of long time users right from the hand movements, inhaling and the atomised vapour that imitates smoke.
Courtesy : India Health
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Firefox Metro For Windows 8
As a future release for Firefox ..mozilla have given a preview of Firefox "Metro".
This preview will give you a glimpse of what Firefox on Metro will be like, but it is not meant to be complete. Several incomplete features will exist, which is normal at this point in development.
The preview is meant to be installed on Windows 8 RTM and later. It is built with PGO optimizations turned off, so it will be slightly slower than the default installs. PGO will be turned on at some point in a future update.
Builds are available in the Firefox Windows 8 wiki. Please feel free to file feature requests and post bug reports.
Some features to look for in the Metro Firefox Preview
This preview will also include the following highlights:
This preview will give you a glimpse of what Firefox on Metro will be like, but it is not meant to be complete. Several incomplete features will exist, which is normal at this point in development.
The preview is meant to be installed on Windows 8 RTM and later. It is built with PGO optimizations turned off, so it will be slightly slower than the default installs. PGO will be turned on at some point in a future update.
Builds are available in the Firefox Windows 8 wiki. Please feel free to file feature requests and post bug reports.
Some features to look for in the Metro Firefox Preview
This preview will also include the following highlights:
- Metro browser registration capable installer
- Zip builds which do registration upon setting default browser from within Firefox
- Updates enabled
- New navigation URL bar inspired by the australis theme
- New tab bar with tab previews (double swipe from the top edge or bottom edge to expose the tab previews)
- Alternate tab bar with always visible tabs
- Auto complete screen with tile suggestions as you type
- New touch optimized start screen with tiles
- Windows 8 App bar with common functionality
- Changes to the default theme to fit into Metro
- Various new touch capabilities
- Various keyboard shortcuts
- On screen keyboard handling
- Gesture support
- In-page text selection
- Crash reporting
- Telemetry support
- Context sensitive default handling, if in Metro stay in Metro for link clicks
- Sync support with browser through remote Firefox sync (Set it up through settings)
- Support for the share data contract to share the current page with another Metro application
- Support for the search contract to search inside Firefox whether or not Firefox is already open
- Support for the settings contract accessible via the settings charm
- Support for snap and filled states, to use Firefox and another Metro application at the same time
- Metro open and save file picker support
- Support for secondary tiles (pinned websites to your start screen)
- View current page on desktop functionality
- Support for pdfjs: In content PDF viewer built in JavaScript
- Spell checking enabled
- And a lot more
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Japan’s political candidates hang out with voters on Google+
Yesterday, the heads of Japan’s eight most popular political parties held eight consecutive Google+ Hangouts to engage with citizens across the country ahead of Sunday’s general election—arguably the largest (and longest) series of Hangouts with politicians ever! Each of the leaders held a Hangout, including incumbent Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda from the Democratic Party Japan and Shinzo Abe from the Liberal Democratic Party.
Voters asked questions that reflected the most pressing issues on the Japanese people’s minds: the ailing economy, social security and the future of energy programs. For instance, one 21-year old student asked a politician about welfare and economic self-reliance, in response to which the politician explained his vision to create more opportunities for young people.
After announcing these Hangouts on November 29, we invited citizens to upload their questions on to Google+ using the hashtag #政治家と話そう (“talk to politicians”). Ten participants representing a cross-section of voters across Japanese society—including a college student from Tokyo, a housewife from Mie prefecture, and a businessman from Shizuoka prefecture—were chosen to join the Hangouts. People who tuned in said that it gave them a chance to witness an in-depth conversation between politicians and voters up close, which is rare in Japan’s incredibly short and intense campaign season of 12 days.
These Hangouts are part of Google Japan’s effort to help voters get information about the candidates before they head to the polls on December 16. To help voters get access to information about more than 1,000 candidates and 12 political parties, we launched our Japan elections site, called Erabou 2012 (“Choose 2012”), at google.co.jp/senkyo. This site serves as a hub for all latest elections-related information, pulling together candidate profiles and party platforms. If you missed the Hangouts live, you can also watch the recordings there and on the Japan Politics YouTube Channel.
Voters asked questions that reflected the most pressing issues on the Japanese people’s minds: the ailing economy, social security and the future of energy programs. For instance, one 21-year old student asked a politician about welfare and economic self-reliance, in response to which the politician explained his vision to create more opportunities for young people.
After announcing these Hangouts on November 29, we invited citizens to upload their questions on to Google+ using the hashtag #政治家と話そう (“talk to politicians”). Ten participants representing a cross-section of voters across Japanese society—including a college student from Tokyo, a housewife from Mie prefecture, and a businessman from Shizuoka prefecture—were chosen to join the Hangouts. People who tuned in said that it gave them a chance to witness an in-depth conversation between politicians and voters up close, which is rare in Japan’s incredibly short and intense campaign season of 12 days.
These Hangouts are part of Google Japan’s effort to help voters get information about the candidates before they head to the polls on December 16. To help voters get access to information about more than 1,000 candidates and 12 political parties, we launched our Japan elections site, called Erabou 2012 (“Choose 2012”), at google.co.jp/senkyo. This site serves as a hub for all latest elections-related information, pulling together candidate profiles and party platforms. If you missed the Hangouts live, you can also watch the recordings there and on the Japan Politics YouTube Channel.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Day N Night Blended
1. Coney Island – Day and Night
3. Central Park – Day and Night
4. Park Avenue – Day and Night
5. The High Line – Day and Night
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