Number of Internet users in India could cross 450 million by June: report

New Delhi: The number of Internet users in India is expected to reach 450-465 million by June, up 4-8% from 432 million in December 2016, a report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB International said.

The report added its forecast does not factor in the impact of demonetisation, which gave a boost to digital and mobile transactions.

The report said overall Internet penetration in India is currently around 31%.

“Urban India with an estimated population of 444 million already has 269 million (60%) using the Internet. Rural India, with an estimated population of 906 million as per 2011 census, has only 163 million (17%) Internet users. Thus, there are potential approximately 750 million users still in rural India who are yet to become Internet users; if only they can be reached out properly.”

ALSO READ: A billion Indian identities at risk as Modi widens digital reach with Aadhaar

The report points out that 77% of urban users and 92% of rural users consider mobile as the primary device for accessing the Internet, largely driven by availability and affordability of smartphones.

“Different mobile handset manufacturers have focused on introducing low priced handsets and tablets compatible to access the Internet. More and more companies are getting into this segment and this has resulted in competition primarily basis the retail price and features of the device. Fall in the rates for Internet access due to cut throat competition among mobile service providers has also contributed to significant increase in mobile phone as preferred device for Internet access,” the report said.

The pattern of usage, however, starkly differs across rural and urban populations. While services such as e-mails, social networking and online shopping are prevalent in urban India, it is entertainment in the form of video and audio content driving Internet consumption in the rural counterpart of the country. Rural India is claimed to have leapfrogged to mobile technology with lower penetration of computers as a medium to access Internet.

ALSO READ: Digital looms large

In urban India, the Internet user base grew by 7% to 263 million for year-on-year period ended October 2016, which is expected to be 275-285 million by June 2017. For the same annual period ending October 2016, rural India's Internet user base grew by 22% between to 157 million and is forecast to reach 170-180 million by June 2017.

Another report published by market research firm Counterpoint in January estimated that India's smartphone user base grew to over 300 million in December 2016 as the smartphone market grew by 18% for year ended December 2016 as compared to the global smartphone market which grew at 3%. The same firm had published a report last year, claiming that India had surpassed the US to become the second largest smartphone market in the world.

Nokia 3310 is back! Colorful, yet the basic feature phone.......

                       By Chetan Bhawani
Isn’t this the Nokia we wanted to see? Indeed. And the company that is back after several hurdles and it is delivering big. Nokia 6 was the first smartphone under HMD Global when the company made its first appearance at the CES 2017 in Las Vegas, and now, Nokia brings back what was the best product ever – the Nokia 3310!

This takes us back to the time when the name Nokia was a legacy. Anyone, everyone would trust Nokia to be the best in offering a basic phone without any nonsense. The nostalgic return of Nokia 3310 comes with Nokia’s Series 30+ software, with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, a 2-megapixel camera, and even a microSD slot.
Glossy red and yellow colors, and matte grey and dark blue colors. This wasn’t how the Nokia 3310 was back then, but now the changes look so good and refreshing, that I’ll stand in a queue to get hold of this little beauty.

22 hours of talk time, 10 times more than what the original Nokia 3310 had. And it does have Snake, the popular game that defined what gaming on a small basic phone would be back then. Also, Nokia has the Opera Mini bundled if you want to do some basic web browsing. Take it seriously, you cannot do a lot here on the phone, but you might still want it if you have been a tech geek and a fan of Nokia from the past.

2G connectivity at max, for calling or texting
The UI is new but still takes us back to the original one
2MP camera on the back
3.5mm Headphone jack
Will be available in single SIM and dual SIM models
FM radio and MP3 player
16GB internal storage
MicroSD card slot for storage expansion
The price for the Nokia 3310 is set at 49 euros, which is about 3500 INR.

BlackBerry has Just Unveiled its Android Phone named “Blackberry Keyone

BlackBerry has Just Unveiled its Android Phone named “Blackberry Keyone”. It was earlier code named as mercury. The main highlight of the phone is its Physical keyboard and Camera i.e. 12MP rear camera(Sony IMX378 sensor) with 4K video at 30 fps, f/2.0 lens. It is the same camera which is used in Google Pixel.

BlackBerry Keyone is packed with 4.5-inch scratch-resistant, 1620 x 1080-pixel display, It is powered with Snapdragon 625 Octa-core processor which is paired with 3GB RAM and 32 GB internal Storage. The phone is packed with 12MP rear camera (Sony IMX378 sensor) with 4K video at 30 fps, f/2.0 lens, It is the same camera sensor which is used in Google Pixel. Moreover, the phone is also packed with 8MP fixed-focus front camera. It runs on the latest Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.

Coming to the connectivity options, Blackberry KeyOne includes USB Type-C, WiFi, GPS and 4G LTE support. Interestingly North American (U.S.) version of the BlackBerry KeyOne does not support all of the essential 4G LTE bands required by Verizon Wireless and Sprint. All the supported bands are : bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 17, 19, 20, 28, 29, 30.

Coming to the availability and pricing Blackberry Keyone has just announced ans is going to be available by April. Blackberry KEYOne is available for $449 in the US, €599 in Europe and £499 in the UK. It is also coming to india for around Rs. 35000.

After Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp is The Latest App To Copy Snapchat

Over past months, we have discussed how Facebook and Instagram have ripped-off features from Snapchat and added them to their apps. While there have been no lawsuits (And I don’t think Snapchat can sue Facebook Inc.) These added features have helped Facebook in increasing the user count a lot. Today, WhatsApp –a Facebook-owned company- joines the traditions of copying features of Snapchat

Google, Yahoo, and Others Will Soon Ban Torrent Links in Search Results

Torrent sites have been around for a long time and have found a way to survive no matter what. If one is taken down another comes up to take its place. Google has been the biggest marketer of these sites, by informing people about them. Now with the increasing complaints against such torrent sites by the entertainment industry regarding online piracy, Google along with many other search engines, is now planning to ban all torrent sites.

To do away with the label of being a piracy promotor, Google entered into a discussing with other search companies and entertainment studios that were chaired by UK’s Intellectual Property Office, according to a report by Torrent Freak.
The meeting included other prominent search engines such as Yahoo and Bing, among many others. A decision was reached that they will deal with the appearance of the torrent sites in their search results. A draft amendment to the Digital Economy Bill committee will allow the government to impose a code of practice on search engines. But now, after a recent meeting, the various companies decided that such a step will not be needed.”Since the idea was last discussed in [parliament], Intellectual Property Office officials have chaired a further round-table meeting between search engines and representatives of the creative industries,” Baroness Buscombe said. “While there are still elements of detail to be settled, the group is now agreed on the key content of the code, and I expect an agreement to be reached very soon.”

“Since the idea was last discussed in [parliament], Intellectual Property Office officials have chaired a further round-table meeting between search engines and representatives of the creative industries,” Baroness Buscombe said. “While there are still elements of detail to be settled, the group is now agreed on the key content of the code and I expect an agreement to be reached very soon.”

The Torrent Freak reported that the agreement would come into affect on 1 June 2017. As of now, no details have been announced. And the companied involved have no comments about the steps they plan to take to curb piracy.

The agreement is most likely to be implemented in UK, and after that, it will be interesting to see if it will work all over the world with uniformity.

Apple patent shows Fingerprint sensor built right into iPhone’s screen

By Sai Krishna -Feb 16, 20170

Apple has been granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office for a new fingerprint-reading technology. This new patent will eliminate the dedicated sensor to rear fingerprints. Instead, it will read the fingerprints directly through the screen. This new patent has being titled as “Interactive display panel with IR diodes, ” and it went back to 2014 and was first spotted by AppleInsider.

LuxVue initially filed the patent; a company that makes the micro-LED display which was later acquired by Apple in 2014 hence the patent was also assigned to Apple in 2014. According to the report coming in from AppleInsider, Apple is thinking of ditching the TouchID altogether and move to a more advanced way of implementing the fingerprint sensor.
Touchscreen which is capable of acting as an input device, as well as a fingerprint scanner, would give more space and greater design flexibility. Rumors regarding the TouchID and the new Apple iPhone have been circulating for a while now, but Apple is yet to shed light on the developments. However, there is a little scope of this patent surface at this moment.

With the iPhone 8 (or 7s may be), Apple might bring significant design changes, and it might include the Iris Scanner and the company might celebrate a special 10th anniversary iPhone; currently code named as iPhone X which will support wireless charging, thanks to the glass back. Though nothing is official until Apple comes out and announces.

Vernee Apollo 2 Launch Confirmed With 8GB of RAM And A Deca Core Processor

.                                                                          FEB 14, 2017by NAVNI BAJPAI

  company Vernee has made the announcement that it will launch a new smartphone Apollo 2, at MWC 2017 later this month. The company had earlier launched a smartphone Apollo that had 6 GB RAM. The Apollo 2 will be its successor. The company has moved a step forward with this smartphone, that will have a 8 GB RAM.

The Apollo 2 will be the first smartphone to have an 8GB RAM if it hits the market before the Asus ZenFone AR, which is due to hit markets in Q2 2017, as the latter is the current title holder for a phone with the highest RAM.

The company announced in a Twitter post on Monday that the Apollo 2 will be released in the MWC 2017 and it will be the first smartphone in the world to be powered by an Helio X30 processor. The company further added that the smartphone would be available in two variants: 64GB of inbuilt storage + 6GB of RAM and 128GB of inbuilt storage + 8GB of RAM. In addition to these specifications, the Apollo 2 is expected to have QHD display.

The processor Helio X30 is going to be the successor of the Helio X20 SoC. It is build with TSMC’s 10nm FinFET architecture and sports a quad-core PowerVR 7XT GPU. The X30 chip features a trip cluster design similar to its predecessors, X20 and X25. This chipset is capable of support 8 GB RAM device. It can support a camera with sensor capability as high as 40 megapixels and can support video capture up to 24 megapixels.

The deca-core Helio X30 comes with four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at 2.8GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 2.2GHz, and two Cortex-A35 cores clocked at 2GHz. The X30 comes with a modem that will support three carrier aggregation (3CA) and Cat.12 LTE.

We are now waiting for the official announcement at the MWC to know more about the Apollo2 and its features.