India: A conversation with Eric Schmidt (video)

Reimagining India: A conversation with Eric Schmidt | McKinsey & Company: Google opened its first office in India almost a decade ago, and executive chairman Eric Schmidt has since watched the country’s technology sector expand rapidly. In this video interview, Schmidt is optimistic about the role technology can continue to play in India’s development but warns that the regulatory environment must keep improving. This interview was conducted by James Manyika, a director in McKinsey’s San Francisco office . . . . "it’s perfectly possible that India can leapfrog much of the technology that we’ve taken for granted over the last few decades and build very, very powerful fourth-generation LTE networks to handle the tremendous load of all these Indian users and consumers .... Technology is a declining cost industry. And the phone that we have today, which using US prices is a $400 phone, will be a $200 phone in a couple of years, because of Moore’s law, and a couple years later, it’s a $100 phone ... We’ll get a basically successful smartphone with a modestly powerful screen. And the price points can be well below $50.... one of the simple solutions there is to have much more access to WiFi hotspots and the ability to be mobile between them. So even there, we have some solutions. I think there’s every reason to believe that in five to ten years, the majority of Indian citizens will have good access to the Internet...." (Eric Schmidt is executive chairman of Google). (read more at the link above) 

Smartphone market in the US (comScore) -- Android leads the market with more than 50% of the market, Motorola now growing again and is the #3 manufacturer, Apple iOS has 41 % share, Microsoft Windows Phone has slow growth, Blackberry dying with the rest -- Apple 40.6% in US Smartphones, Samsung 25.4%, Android Up, iOS Up: "... the real story is with Motorola ..."

Motorola's Project Ara modular phone prototype is 'almost ready' | News | TechRadar: "...what we'd like to eventually get to is [customising] functionality within the device and that's where Project Ara and Moto Maker may converge." Moto's new direction seems heavily centric on giving smartphone users exactly what they want in a smartphone. The Moto X offers custom backplates, materials and colour schemes and Project Ara will take those decisions to the ultimate level for tech enthusiasts...."

Google Squeezes Margins on Moto G Phone
Wall Street Journal
Google's 2012 acquisition of Motorola was a provocative move that put it in competition with partners making phones based on its Android mobile-operating ...

Headlines & Global News

Google, Facebook, Twitter bolster digital defenses in wake of NSA revelations
San Jose Mercury News
But more recently, top executives at Google, Microsoft and Yahoo (YHOO) have touted their efforts -- in a reflection of both growing outrage over government surveillance and a desire to convince users that the companies are doing all they can to ...

Apple iPad Air launch: Mumbaikars form queues to buy the device
Daily News & Analysis
Apple is introducing the new iPads to India soon after Google launched the ... Apple is rolling out the slick iPad Air and the new iPad mini today in India.

Google, Facebook, Twitter bolster digital defenses in wake of NSA ...
San Jose Mercury News
Quietly at first, but more vocally in recent months, Google (GOOG), Facebook and ... But more recently, top executives at Google, Microsoftand Yahoo (YHOO) ...

Guardian Express

Google Updates Play Music App With SD Card Storage But Where ...
Forbes
In case you missed it, Google Google updated their Play Music app yesterday. The update brings some nice UI tweaks including a slick slide-out menu, the ...

Guardian Express

Microsoft mood bra: Embedded sensors may keep you from pigging ...
Los Angeles Times
A bra that helps stop you from pigging out when you're an emotional mess. An uplifting experience? That's what Microsoft is going for with its prototype “smart ...

natmonitor.com

Google's Eric Schmidt wants a ban on Amazon's drones
Fortune (blog)
Google's Eric Schmidt wants a ban on Amazon's drones. By Philip ... Apple (AAPL), meanwhile, is trying to make a virtue -- if not a marketable feature -- out of the ...

Apple iBeacon launched to help customers navigate Apple stores
Newsday
GPS will tell you how to get to the nearest Apple store. With iBeacon,Apple hopes to guide you around once you're inside, whether it's to pick up an order, ...

Newsday

Apple Stores fire up iBeacon to track you while you shop
CNET
Starting Friday, the iBeacon feature in iOS 7 is ready to be your personal shopper, and it won't be shy about saying you're due to upgrade that iPhone.

You are the query: Yahoo's bold quest to reinvent search | Internet & Media - CNET News: ".... for Yahoo really to build something of consequence in search and personalization, it's got a lot of hurdles to overcome. "Yahoo has not been able to figure out how to take their data and combine it with third-party data to create something meaningful," said Sameet Sinha, a senior analyst at B. Riley and Co. Not to mention the fact that Yahoo doesn't have its own operating system -- on mobile or desktop -- to jump-start the adoption of any search tool. But Mayer helped make Google, the company that took search -- a category a handful of other companies were already established in -- friendlier to the masses. Rightly or wrongly, Mayer's bet is that Yahoo has got the user interface chops to create an experience that rivals that of anyone else, including her old company"

Fate of 40 stranded Florida whales unclear
AFP
Miami — After a three-day rescue effort, the fate of 40 whales hung in the balance, with officials saying they had lost track of two dozen of them in southern Florida. The search has been halted due to darkness and weather constraints but it will resume at first ...

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NSA Spying "OUTRAGEOUS" says Google's Schmidt

And it happened on your watch Barack -- YOU are responsible --

Google's Schmidt: NSA Spying on Data Centers Is 'Outrageous'

Wall Street Journal (blog)
HONG KONG—Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt slammed reports that the U.S. government allegedly spied on the company's data centers, describing such an act as "outrageous" and potentially illegal if proven. "It's really outrageous that the National Security Agency was looking between the Google data centers, if that's true. The steps that the organization was willing to do without good judgment to pursue its mission and potentially violate people's privacy, it's not OK," Mr. Schmidt told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. "The Snowden revelations have assisted us in understanding that it's perfectly possible that there are more revelations to come." Mr. Schmidt said Google had registered complaints with the NSA, as well as President Barack Obama and members of the U.S. Congress.... (read more at link above)

Wall Street Journal (blog)

NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide ...
Agency positioned itself to collect from among millions of accounts, many belonging to Americans.
www.washingtonpost.com/.../e51d661e-4166-11e3-8b74-d89...

Google Taps Video Growth With $608 Million Finnish Investment

Bloomberg
Google, based in Mountain View, California, is stepping up investments to cope with increasing volume from wireless devices as ... Microsoft Corp. said on Sept.

Economic Times

First Take: BlackBerry shock? That Watsa wants to invest: ". . . The bet gets even odder in light of third-quarter market share statistics released by Strategy Analytics last month. In the third quarter, BlackBerry's share of the global smartphone market plummeted to 1% from 4.3% in the same quarter a year earlier, as units shopped dropped to 2.5 million from 7.4 million. All of its share loss appeared to go directly to the Android platform that has become the top rival to Apple's iPhone, the Newton, Mass. based market researcher said . . ."

Android 4.4 KitKat and Google's quest to take over the world | The Verge: ". . . The focus on improving entry-level performance with KitKat is, in the eyes of industry observer Avi Greengart, “one of the smartest things Google has done for Android in a long time.”. . ."

Google's cut-price Nexus 4 disappears from Play stores

ZDNet
Summary: A week after the Nexus 5 launch, Google appears to have run out of ... Carphone Warehouse, although some appear to be available onAmazon UK.

Daily Mail

Apple puts the ball in Microsoft's court

Computerworld (blog)
Apple would like to disrupt [Microsoft] before it gets to a more service-oriented ... 7 to Windows 8.1, which currently costs about $115 on Amazon.com, he said.

Apple's Tim Cook urges Senate vote on workplace equality

CNET
Apple CEO Tim cook is calling on Congress to pass a bill that seeks to offer protection against workplace policies and practices that create disadvantages based ...

Telegraph.co.uk

Apple's iOS Engineering Vice President, Henri Lamiraux, Retires

PC Magazine
An executive on Apple's iOS team is out but, don't worry – the move was completely ... As first noticed by 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman, Apple's vice president of ...

NDTV

Apple co-founder buys a Tesla Motors Model S

Christian Science Monitor
Apple co-founder and Silicon Valley luminary Steve Wozniak picked up his own ... George Blankenship--the man responsible for the signature look ofApple ...

GTspirit

Google Doodles The Human Calculator, Shakuntala Devi

Indiatimes.com
It's the birthday of Shakuntala Devi, the Human Calculator and Google has honoured her with a special static calculator Google Doodle. The GoogleDoodle ...

Indiatimes.com

Google Will Now Educate Glass Explorers Over Hangouts, No Barge ...

Darrell Etherington
Google is expanding its Glass Explorer program once again, allowing current ... Amazon is experimenting with direct, live technical assistance on the new Kindle ...
TechCrunch

Google's Ingress augmented reality game exits beta December 14

Michael Gorman
It's been just over a year since Google's Niantic Labs launched Ingress, an alternate and augmented reality turf war game, as a closed beta. Last Friday,
Engadget RSS Feed

Apple CEO Tim Cook Writes Op-Ed in Support of U.S. Employment ...

Richard Padilla
Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly spoken out in support of the pending ... Apple/Microsoft'Rockstar Consortium' Sues Google, Others Over Nortel Patents.
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page (legacy)

Michelle Malkin | Is HealthCare.gov like using Amazon? Obama and ...

Doug Powers
“[S]tarting today, you and your friends and your family and your coworkers can get covered, too. Just visit healthcare.gov, and there you can compare insurance ...
Michelle Malkin

Apple Mum On iPad Sales
InformationWeek
Apple remained quiet Monday morning following the iPad Air's November 1 debut.Apple's new tablet went on sale last week to shorter lines than previous launches. Though the company did not announce first weekend sales figures, several analytics firms ...

Microsoft enters 20-year deal to buy Texas wind power as part of a plan to be ...
Washington Post
“As you can imagine when you have that much concentration of data it requires a lot of energy to keep those things running ... and those are the challenges of companies likeMicrosoft, Google,” Janous said. “If we're going to be a consumer of energy ...

Microsoft and Apple unleash thermonuclear war on Google and Android
ZDNet
The Rockstar Consortium, a joint venture owned by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson, and Sony, have kicked into motion a barrage of lawsuits against a raft of defendants that include Google, Samsung, LG Electronics, HTC, and Huawei. In other words ...

Disruptions: Under a New Chief, Yahoo Still Seeks Its Voice - NYTimes.com: "“The major changes she has made are not what the logo looks like or a new Yahoo Mail,” he said. “The major changes are what the company looks like internally. She’s revitalizing the inside of the company, and what everyone sees on the surface are just little ripples.”"

Amazon sets Nov. 15 release date for first original TV series
CNET
Amazon Studios -- the entertainment production arm of the e-commerce giant -- said Monday it will release the first three episodes of TV series "Alpha House" on November 15 and the same for "Betas" a week later. To see the remaining eight episodes, ...

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Google's Schmidt Urges North Korea to Open Internet

Google's Schmidt Urges North Korea to Open Internet
Wall Street Journal
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt says he advised North Korea to open Internet access to help to improve its economy during a visit to the isolated country. The WSJ's Brian Spegele tells us what the Google executive may want from the nation.

Nearly 1 million more Xbox 360s than Wii Us sold in December
CNET
According to Microsoft, it sold 1.4 million Xbox 360 units in December. Nintendo, meanwhile, said that it sold over 460,000 Wii U units during the same period. Don Reisinger. by Don Reisinger. January 11, 2013 5:54 AM PST. What's up with the Wii U?

BlackBerry outage hits some Vodafone users
Washington Post
Research in Motion confirmed that Vodafone customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East were experiencing some “service issues” Friday morning. In a message posted to the company's British Twitter account, RIM indicated that it was working with the ...

Apple Downplays Cheap iPhone Reports
InformationWeek
Apple's Phil Schiller said the company will not sell cheap iPhones. But as is always the case with Apple, it doesn't do something until it does it. Start The Discussion Comments. Tweet; Mail Mail; Print Print · Eric Zeman | January 11, 2013 08:43 AM ...

Samsung cancels plans for Windows RT tablet in the US
ZDNet
Summary: I like using my Microsoft Surface RT and find the included apps and 3rd party apps meet my needs. It's a bit concerning to me that Samsung doesn't see enough value in the platform to launch a device. Matthew Miller. By Matthew Miller for The ...

ZDNet

Fla. Python Hunt Begins Thisss Weekend
ABC News
Florida wildlife officials are launching a snake hunting mission to help curb the growing population of Burmese pythons threatening the Everglades and nearby neighborhoods. Nearly 500 amateur hunters have signed up for the month-long competition in ...

ABC News

EU antitrust chief growls at Google, hopes to avoid sanctions
Register
Brussels' competition chief Joaquin Almunia has sniffed at any suggestion that the European Commission would follow the US consumer watchdog by allowing Google to avoid a tough settlement over its alleged "abuse of dominance" in the online search ...

Incipio launches tape-less tape measure (video)
PCWorld
Leah started out as a PCWorld columnist before Macworld scooped her up as an assistant editor. Now, she happily writes features and covers iOS apps, smartphone cases, gadget bags, and social media trends across all three of our sites. More by Leah ...

Microsoft Confirms Acquisition of Entertainment-Tech Startup R2 Studios
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images: A man samples games on the XBOX 360 at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Microsoft Corp. confirmed it acquired a home-entertainment technology startup, id8 Group R2 Studios, as the ...

Wall Street Journal (blog)

Wikipedia Takes On Travel Industry With Wikivoyage
Wired
A dog-eared copy of the MTV Italy travel book hardly left my side during a 2007 trip to the boot-shaped country. It provided the context and the basics I needed, but the downside was that it was six months out of date as soon as it was printed. So that fabulous ...

CES 2013: Lessons from Las Vegas
BBC News
I've been coming to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas since 2007, and I think at last I'm beginning to get the hang of it. It's loud, overwhelming, crowded and sometimes chaotic - but there are ways to cope with it. So here's what I've learned in Las ...

BBC News

Get ready for pricey 'Ultra HD' TVs
CNNMoney
Every year at the Consumer Electronics Show, there's a big television advance to spotlight. Whether it's super-slim LED TVs, or 3-D TV or Internet-integrated "smart TVs," manufacturers always coalesce around a trend and hope consumers will follow their lead ...

China Will Be Its #1 Market
ABC News (blog)
The sun rises in the east – for Apple. CEO Tim Cook says his firm expects China to be its number one market in the future, overtaking the U.S.. The remarks were made to a Chinese news agency during a visit to Beijing. “China is currently our second largest ...

Steve Jobs Memorialized by iPhone Sculpture in Russia
The Mac Observer
Late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs has been memorialized in St. Petersburg, Russia by the installation of large iPhone-like stone sculpture, unveiled Wednesday. As reported by the UK's Daily Mail, the sculpture's design was chosen from more than ...

The Mac Observer

IBM Watson supercomputer learned to curse thanks to Urban Dictionary
SlashGear
I've always thought that the IBM Watson supercomputer was a very cool device indeed. In fact, I thought Watson was such an interesting machine that I even watched the episodes of Jeopardy where Watson was a contestant. I think it's the only time I ever ...

SlashGear

Windows Messenger closes in March
The Guardian
2013 will mark the end of an era for social media fans as Microsoft finally kills off Windows Messenger, its popular but outdated instant messaging tool. After announcing in November that it planned to close the service, Microsoft this week emailed Messenger ...

The Guardian

The Pacific Bluefin Tuna Is Going, Going…
TIME
It wasn't an easy number to find. Earlier this week the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the North Pacific Ocean—seriously, that's the name—released the latest assessment (PDF) of the Pacific bluefin tuna population.

TIME

Largest Spiral Galaxy Is Five Times Bigger Than Milky Way, NGC 6872 Study ...
Huffington Post
Astronomers have crowned the universe's largest known spiral galaxy, a spectacular behemoth five times bigger than our own Milky Way. The title-holder is now NGC 6872, a barred spiral found 212 million light-years away in the southern constellation Pavo, ...

Innovation, Not Just Reputation, Is Key to Market Success
Forbes
Variety may be the spice of life, but innovation drives variety. The pervasive taste of Apple would still dominate the smartphone palate if Samsung hadn't kicked things up a notch. Innovation Snabe 01-10-2013-A In fact, the South Korean manufacturer of the ...

Forbes

A Story About Steve Jobs, Steel Balls and Gorilla Glass (You, with the Cracked ...
TIME
The idea behind the Apple iPhone 5C is that it comes with a pre-cracked screen so you don't have to worry about cracking it yourself. But since it's not an actual product, we generally have to wait patiently for our own clumsiness, drunkenness, short temper or...

TIME

Nokia Bonds Rally as Lumia-Led Turnaround Gathers Pace
Bloomberg
Buyers of Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)'s debt are joining equity holders in reaping rewards as Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop's plan to salvage the Finnish smartphone maker gathers pace. Nokia's handset unit is poised for the first break-even result or profit in a ...

New UN Environment Studies Show Rising Mercury Threat to People in ...
AllAfrica.com
Communities in developing countries are facing increasing health and environmental risks linked to exposure to mercury, according to new studies by the United Nations environmental agency. Produced by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the ...

Stargazing: 'Doomsday Asteroid' misses by a mile, actually 9 million
Florida Today
Near Earth Objects are comets and asteroids that cross the Earth's orbit and represent a potential threat of hitting the Earth. / NASA. Written by. Bernie Badger. Satellties and Planets. Filed Under. Columnists · Bernie Badger. Near Earth Objects are comets and ...

Dell Latitude 10 Essentials and Project Ophelia - Two very different approaches ...
ZDNet
Summary: Dell announced a new budget configuration for its Latitude 10 tablet at CES this week, along with the Dell Wyse Project Ophelia zero client, giving two very different options for improving student computing access. Christopher Dawson ...

You Can Send a Message to Zuckerberg's Inbox (For $100)
Gizmodo
You Can Send a Message to Zuckerberg's Inbox (For $100) If you have something you feel you desperately need to tell Mark Zuckerberg, now might be a real good time. For the handsome sum of $100, you can send a message to Mark's Facebook inbox, ...

Java allows 'open hunting season' for hackers, experts find
ZDNet
Security professionals urge disabling Java on your PC, saying that the computer language has created an "open hunting season on consumers" for hackers. Talking to Reuters, Jaime Blasco, Labs Manager with security firm AlienVault Labs recommended ...

Developer gets Mac OS running on a jailbroken Surface
Geek
It didn't take long for developers to move from a proof-on-concept RAM exploit to a full-blown Windows RT jailbreak. Over at the XDA forums, members have posted a simple batch file that makes the process just about foolproof. All it takes is a little patience ...

Geek

Regulators critical of Verizon's response to powerful wind storm; question level ...
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators have issued a sharply critical report on phone problems that followed a severe wind storm in the Washington-metro area last year. The Federal Communications Commission says even now, it remains concerned about ...

Windows 8 uncertainty blamed for decline in PC sales
TG Daily
For the first time in five years, PC shipments over the holiday shopping season were lower than the year before - and IDC is blaming Windows 8. The research firm says that a hoped-for boost to sales from the new operating system failed to materialize, ...

TG Daily

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Tweets from space
San Francisco Chronicle
Chris Hadfield has been Tweeting photos and observations since arriving at the International Space Station in December. He Tweeted about this photo: Humans need straight lines, nature doesn't. Indecisive river and orderly farmers, central Asia.

San Francisco Chronicle

Posts tagged ces 2013
TeensTalkTech (blog)
There was a lot going on at CES this week, though not too many big announcements as far as new cell phones go. Well, except if you're on T-Mobile, in which case there were some pretty huge announcements. Some of the big things T-Mobile shared this ...

Audi Piloted Driving Concept Explained – Video
Motorward
Audi is taking autonomous driving very seriously, by the looks of things, acquiring a license to test these cars on public roads in Nevada, and showing up at CES 2013 with a fully functional demo car. The piloted driving technology is not a full autopilot feature...

Motorward

Canon PowerShot N camera with iOS and Android support
Product Reviews
The point and shoot compact camera has been the device of choice when it comes to taking those spontaneous moments quick and fast, but times have changed and the compact camera has been left behind in recent years by the success of the Smartphone ...

Product Reviews

iPotty tries to get your toddler to use the toilet
SlashGear
People out there who don't have kids can't understand what a big deal it is for parents to potty train their kids. Not only does it really suck to have to clean up wet and poopy diapers multiple times a day, but was disposable diapers are incredibly expensive as ...

SlashGear

Anarchy Reigns review: Bland beat 'em...
Toronto Star
Anarchy Reigns. (out of 4). (Xbox/PS3). Rated M. Anarchy Reigns is a third-person beat 'em up from Platinum Software, best known for its over-the-top titles Bayonetta and MadWorld. All three games share similar control schemes and goals: use hand-to-hand ...

Toronto Star

Angry Birds Space update splashes underwater with new Pig Dipper episode
NDTV
If gravity wasn't enough, Rovio chose to add another interesting element to the birds in space - buoyancy. Angry Birds Space just got updated with an all new Pig Dipper episode featuring 30 new aquatic-themed levels. Users will now have to rethink their ...

NDTV

North American International Auto Show awash in optimism
CBC.ca
Confidence and optimism surround this year's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. "Last year we came halfway back, this year we're all the way back," said Jim Seavitt, a 30-year Ford deal and chairman of the North American International Auto ...

CBC.ca

Amazon AutoRip Provides Free Digital Copies Of CDs
InformationWeek
Amazon.com customers who have purchased music CDs as gifts without declaring them as such may be surprised to find that the company has returned the favor: Music from a large selection of CDs and MP3 files acquired from Amazon as far back as 1998 ...

Apple Targets App Store Bait And Switch Scammers
InformationWeek
Apple will lock down app screenshots after approval to stem a spate of sellers hawking fake apps....

Windows 8 Licenses Reach 60 Million Mark: Microsoft
eWeek
Despite some early discouraging signs, Microsoft says Windows 8 is selling more like the popular Windows 7 OS and not its ill-fated predecessor, Vista. Microsoft's big gamble is paying off, according to Windows executive Tami Reller. Reller, who is chief...

eWeek

Latest Mississippi news, sports, business and entertainment
WJTV
Authorities say they have run out of bunkers at a Louisiana military base for some of the millions of pounds explosives that caused a town's evacuation after the material was found haphazardly stored. Webster Parish Sheriff Gary Sexton says authorities are ...

Facebook's stock continues on a tear
CNET
One day after breaking the $30 mark, Facebook settles above $31 as speculation about next week's media announcement builds. Charles Cooper. by Charles Cooper. January 10, 2013 1:02 PM PST Follow @coopeydoop. The Nasdaq board in Times Square ...

Newfound planet is best candidate yet for life
TG Daily
Scientists with NASA's Kepler mission say they believe they've found the most Earthlike exoplanet yet. Earlier this week, they announced that they'd identified 461 new planet candidates, four of which are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their sun's ...

TG Daily

CES 2013: Asus' Transformer AiO runs both Windows 8, Android
Firstpost
Asus showed off its Transformer all-in-one (AiO), a desktop PC and touchscreen tablet, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday. But unlike other hybrid PCs and tablets this one has a twist, it dual-boots both Windows 8 OS and Google's ...

Firstpost

Lexus to Unveil New IS-Series Sport Sedan in Detroit (Slideshow)
Wall Street Journal (blog)
The redesigned Lexus IS compact sport sedan will have a stronger family resemblance to other vehicles in the luxury-car maker's lineup, based on photos the Toyota unit released. A large, distinctively shaped front grille that Lexus calls the “spindle” has made ...

Wall Street Journal (blog)

Tegra 4 is clocked around 2GHz
Fudzilla
We still don't know the exact clock, as Nvidia is disclosing all the details on Tegra 4, but our sources are telling us that this A15 quad-core with a companion core should reach 2GHz. We have confirmed that Nvidia has already sent out samples of the current ...

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