India to enter Mars orbit on September 24

An Indian spacecraft will enter Mars on September 24 for scientific exploration of the red planet after a 300-day voyage through inter-planetary space, an ISRO official said on Monday.

“After cruising through 666-million km across the solar orbit, for over nine months, our spacecraft will be inserted into the Martian orbit on September 24 at 7.30 a.m.," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientific secretary V. Koteswara Rao said here at a preview of the mission’s tryst with the celestial object.

The orbit insertion will take place when the spacecraft will be 423 km from the Martian surface and 215 million km away (radio distance) from the earth.

The ambitious Rs. 450-crore ($70 million) Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was launched November 5, 2013 on board a polar rocket from the spaceport Sriharikota off the Bay of Bengal, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

“India will be the first country in the world to insert a spacecraft into the Martian orbit in its maiden attempt if the operation succeeds and also the first Asian country to reach the red planet’s sphere,” Mr. Rao said.

The ISRO will be the fourth space agency after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the U.S., Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA) and European Space Agency (ESA) to have undertaken a mission to Mars.

Incidentally, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Orbiter (MAVEN) will enter the red planet’s orbit Sep 22.

In the run-up to the D-day, the mission scientists will do course (trajectory) correction on September 22.

As on Monday, the 475 kg (dry mass) spacecraft is 13 million km away from Mars, having cruised 98 per cent (201 million km) of the radio distance from the earth and 653 million km of the sun’s 666 million km orbit.

“The course correction has been postponed to September 22 from Sunday (September 14) to conserve the precious liquid fuel weighing (852 kg) and ensure the orbital insertion takes place when the spacecraft is closer to Mars for smooth transition from the sun’s orbit,” Mr. Rao said.

Scientists at the spacecraft’s control centre have started uploading commands since Sunday and will verify them late Monday.

During the Orbiter’s long journey, mid-course correction was carried twice — Dec 11 and June 11 — but skipped in April and August as it was cruising in the solar orbit as intended.

“The liquid apogee motor (LAM) or fuel engine at the bottom of the spacecraft will be fired on September 22 for four seconds to enter the Martian sphere of influence and the course correction will consume about 500gm of fuel,” Mr. Rao said.

The speed of the spacecraft will also be reduced to 2.14 metre per second from 22.2 km per second for enabling smooth transition into the Martian orbit from the sun’s orbit Sep 24.

The insertion operation will begin at 4.17 a.m. by first activating the spacecraft’s three antennas for receiving and transmitting signals between earth and Mars.

At 6.56 a.m., the spacecraft will be rotated towards Mars and five minutes later when sunlight is not falling on the Martian surface causing eclipse, the thrusters beneath the engine will give the Orbiter altitude control.

“The liquid engine will start firing at 7.17 a.m. and at 7.21 a.m., Mars occult begins. A minute later at 7.22 a.m., telemetry (radio signals) will be off or out of receiving radars on the earth,” Mr. Rao pointed out.

Scientists at the space agency’s deep space network at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore, NASA’s Earth station at Goldstone on the U.S. west coast, the ESA’s Earth station at Madrid will confirm the insertion into the Martian orbit 24 minutes later at 7.54 a.m.

“Telemetry signals resume and Doppler measurements will provide first signals about the successful insertion of the spacecraft into the Martian orbit,” Mr. Rao added.

The spacecraft, with five scientific instruments, will be placed in an elliptical orbit, with the nearest distance from the Martian surface being 423 km and the furthest 80,000 km, to rotate around it in a duration equivalent to 3.2 earth days.

Searching of the missing 'i' in Apple's Watch

Apple Inc.'s Tuesday launch was a marketing extravaganza stuffed full of gadgets, corporate hyperbole and celebrities of every stripe. One thing was missing: the "i" in front of the Watch.

The company that spends hundreds of millions of dollars marketing and advertising its gizmos does not do things without careful deliberation. Some branding experts say Apple chose that foreshortened appellation both to distinguish its first new device in four years and send a message to the public that it was moving into new territory.

Others say the absent alphabet may signify the Watch's positioning for now - as an accessory and companion to the iPhone, which it requires in order to work, rather than a product that exists on its own merits.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

"They are looking down the road," said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, New York- based brand research consultancy. "The watch is going to be an adjunct to a lot of other things that will still have the 'i' attached to them. All of this wearable technology stuff really isn't stand alone."

“It becomes more of an app attachment than a single product," Passikoff said.

But the Watch may carry higher stakes for the company and CEO Cook.

Cook, who has laboured for years under the shadow of his legendary predecessor Steve Jobs, on Tuesday kept the Watch for last, unveiling the first device to be developed under his tenure with a hint of emotion in his voice. Before the unveiling, he had stressed the historic significance of the Flint Centre venue - where a young Jobs unveiled the Macintosh decades ago.

Now, the company that waded into smartphones in 2007 and tablets in 2010 is again venturing into unfamiliar territory, though this time the inherent demand is less than certain. IT research outfit IDC experts predict around 42 million smartwatches will be sold in 2015; Apple sometimes sells that many iPhones in three months.

The financial impact for the company remains unclear, but analysts say the success of the Watch will help restore some shine to its dimming reputation for innovation. In past years, Apple had appeared stuck in an iPhone product cycle, with a new version typically launched in the second half and a more complete redesign only every two years.

That elevates the importance of the timepiece. Marketing chief Phil Schiller once said in court that Apple's strategy, which spends hundreds of millions of dollars on ads, is to "make the product the biggest and clearest thing in advertising."

"It is a new era," said Ellen Leanse, a brand strategist and former senior Apple executive. "It was a highly confident move that signals, pardon the pun, watch us."

"It would have been trite to call it the iWatch. It would have been looking backwards," she added. "This could pave a new path for a product family" like the Macintosh.

Using bond money, Chattanooga, Tennessee created Internet speeds 200x faster than the US standard!

And I can't even get my cat videos to play properly.

Thanks to a substantial bond and stimulus initiative in 2008, Chattanooga, Tennessee became one of the first cities in America to offer Gigabit Internet.

Unlike standard forms of broadband Internet, where most users have access to around five megabytes per second (mbps) for downloading content, Gigabit services offer users at least 1000 mbps.

To put that in perspective, Gigabit users can download an HD movie in less than ten seconds, while it will take the average American over 20 minutes. This means that, in Chattanooga, users signed up for Gigabit Internet get speeds that are 200x faster than the national standard.

Thankfully, other cities are following Chattanooga's example. Google Fiber, a competing Gibabit Internet service, is currently available in Kansas City, Austin, and Provo, with plans to expand into Portland, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, San Antonio, Nashville, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham.

Currently, though the United States is home to most major Internet corporations, it only has the 26th best Internet speeds in the world. Perhaps that fact will change as Gigabit services become more available.

Read more at http://www.omgfacts.com/category/5/Technology#XZgMquUFOJD1UJyq.99

Android One smartphone sales to hit 2 million in 2014: MediaTek

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the initial response to Android One smartphones, chipmaker MediaTek has said it expects as many as two million handsets to be sold this year in India, the world's second largest market for mobile phones.

The Taiwan-headquartered company has partnered with US-based tech giant Google on Android One, an initiative to provide a family of high-quality yet affordable Android devices for consumers in emerging markets like India.

Yesterday, Google launched three devices in partnership with Micromax, Karbonn and Spice under the Android One initiative. India is the first country to have the Android One handets, priced at Rs 6,399 onwards.

"We expect 1.5-2 million Android One handsets to be sold this year in India," MediTek VP (US business development) Mohit Bhushan told PTI when asked about the his expectations on the sale of the handsets.

With prices starting at Rs 6,399, the hardware and software being provided on Android One will give users an amazing experience, he added.

The first set of Android One devices feature MediaTek's MT6582 mobile System-on-Chip (SoC), which is based on quad ARM CortexTM A7 CPU architecture.

The processors deliver superior multitasking performance and excellent sustained performance-per-watt for a premium mobile experience.

When asked about the impact on Android One on the smartphone market, Bhushan said: "In the short term, there can be disruptions. But, this will eventually lead to handset makers not part of Android One to invest on innovating the mobile experience."

He added that companies will have to realize that Android One will give users an unmatched device experience at affordable prices and for them to match it, they will have to follow suit.

With Android One, Google aims to win customers in the world's fastest growing smartphone market with low prices and better quality software.

Currently, many affordable smartphones in India already offer customized versions of the Android operating system.

In case of Android One, the eventual software upgrades on the Android One phones would come directly from Google. This would give Google better control of the operating system and ensure users get a consistent service.

Reports suggest, an initial lot of Micromax Canvas A1 handsets, that were put up for sale on Amazon, were sold out.

PwC India Leader (telecom) Mohammad Chowdhury said: "The festive season regularly sees an uptick in handset sales and we should expect this in the next few months. In particular there is hot competition in the segment priced from Rs 7,000 upwards."

App to help lose weight

If you plan to lose weight, some apps can do the job for you more efficiently by reliably tracking dietary data and preparing what suits your body the most, say researchers.

Smartphones may offer users an advantage over traditional methods when tracking diet data, a team from Arizona State University found.

For the study, researchers recruited healthy adults and randomly divided them into groups based on their diet-tracking method.

The groups consisted of those who used the “Lose It!” app, those who recorded dietary intake using the memo function of their smartphone and those who used traditional paper and pencil to record their diet.

Although smartphone use did not affect total weight loss among the 47 participants who completed the study, researchers observed better diet tracking results among those in the smartphone use groups.

The memo and paper and pencil groups reported twice the number of missing days as the group using the app.

“Participants using a commercially available app more consistently entered complete days of dietary data compared with the paper-and-pencil group and also withdrew from the study less often than the other groups,” explained lead author Christopher Wharton.

“It is possible that app technology offers a less burdensome method for tracking data compared with traditional tools,” he added.

Intel launches kids tablet Eddy in India

California-based chip-maker Intel and Metis Learning have launched a tablet for children aged 2-10 priced at Rs9,999, an official said.

"The technology landscape is changing in India. Tablets can be used as a learning tool. The kids tablet Eddy, combines an ideal balance of performance and battery life coupled with strong learning content to provide an innovative and exciting solution for kids," Sandeep Arora, Intel South Asia director, marketing, said.

Bharat Gulia, co-founder of Metis Learning Solutions, told IANS the company has done a pilot project for the tablet with 500 children.

"We have spent 2 to 3 years creating this and building solution. It is very important to give kids something that is engaging. These years of their lives are the best potential years," he said.

Eddy comes with Android 4.2 and has an internal storage of 16 GB and can be expanded up to 32 GB. It comes pre-loaded with over 160 learning apps selected by educators and experts to accelerate a child's social, emotional and cognitive development.

The size of the tablet market in India is 4 million and of that 10% is the children's tablet market.

"We are trying to tie-up with schools and pe-schools for this tablet. Especially pre-schools are showing a lot of interest," Gulia said.

Eddy will be available in e-commerce portal Amazon for around a month, following which it will be available in retail stores, he said.

Alibaba Raises IPO Price Range

NEW YORK (AP) — Alibaba now plans to raise up to $25.03 billion in its upcoming IPO, making what was expected to be the biggest stock market debut even bigger.

The Chinese e-commerce company said it still plans to sell 368.1 million shares, but at $66 to $68 apiece, according to a regulatory filing, instead of its previously set range of $60 to $66 apiece.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has emerged as a hot commodity because of its e-commerce bazaar, a shopping magnet for businesses and consumers alike as China's economy steadily grows. The company's network of sites includes Taobao, Tmall, and AliExpress, as well as Alibaba.

Most of Alibaba's 279 million active buyers visit the sites at least once a month on smartphones and other mobile devices, making the company attractive to investors as computing shifts away from laptop and desktop machines.

Investors have been salivating over the trifecta of growth that Alibaba offers: "There are very few companies that are this big, grow this fast, and are this profitable," said Wedbush analyst Gil Luria. He initiated coverage on the company with a 12-month price target of $80.

The company's revenue in its latest quarter ended June 30 surged 46 percent from last year to $2.54 billion while its earnings climbed 60 percent to nearly $1.2 billion, after subtracting a one-time gain and certain other items.

Alibaba has been meeting with potential investors over the past week, and demand spurred the increase. Alibaba is expected to be priced late Thursday and start trading Friday under the ticker 'BABA' on the NYSE.

The fundraising target eclipses the $16 billion Facebook raised in 2012, the most for a technology IPO. It also would top the all-time IPO fundraising record of $22.1 billion set by the Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. in 2010, according to the research firm Dealogic.

Adidas launches miCoach smartwatch

German sportswear major Adidas has joined the smartwatch bandwagon with its 'miCoach Smart Run', priced at Rs 24,999, which will allow users to monitor heart rate and play music.

The smartwatch, which will be available exclusively on Adidas website, will also allow runners to track their runs using GPS mapping.

"There are no cables, straps and additional sensors with this all-in-one device — Smart Run uses optical technology to track heart rate from wrist, an in-built accelerometer counting every step to help monitor stride rate and GPS to track speed, distance and logs," it said in a statement.

The device which would have 1.45 inch color touch screen display also features a MP3 player with Bluetooth wireless audio delivers music and audible coaching guidance to solve problems of flailing headphone cables and music players, it added.

Adidas already offers a miCoach app on smartphones. Smart wearables, as a category, is growing globally with the likes of Samsung, Motorola and Apple coming out with their smartphones across various price points.

While smartwatches from these firms are not dedicated to healthcare or athletics, most of these support apps like pedometer and heart rate monitor to help users monitor various bodily functions.

Desi dating apps woo young Indians

NEW DELHI: Their parents may be scrounging matrimonial websites but young Indians with smartphones are spoilt for choice when it comes to desi dating apps. Homegrown free apps such as Thrill, Woo, DesiCrush, Truly Madly and more, and are available on both Android and iOS. 

Woo claims to have made 12,000 matches on the app since July. Thrill, that started beta testing about a year ago, claims to have nearly 50,000 users, while Desicrush, also active in the US and the UK, has about 60,000 from India alone. 

This is how they work: a user signs up with a picture, and basic details. The account is more often than not linked to the person's Facebook profile for authenticity. A person can define certain parameters and is then shown different profiles which s/he can then either like or reject. It is only when two people like each others' profile mutually are they notified and can begin chatting within the app. If they wish, they can meet offline. 

The apps take cue from international dating app Tinder which enjoys an explosive popularity in the US. Globally, they make 12 million new matches every day. The app entered the Indian market last year. "India is still a new market for us, but our user base in India is growing by over 1% per day," says Tinder's vice president of communication Rosette Pambakian. 

Woo founder Sumesh Menon says the acceptance of such apps shows confidence in the way young people want to conduct relationships today. "People in the 25-30 age group are financially independent and don't want to outsource their life decisions," says Menon. Josh Israel, co-founder of Thrill moved to India over a year ago, seeing the potential of the smartphone apps market here. "The smartphone market was growing and user mindset was shifting. No one was building a dating app particularly for India. We were told India is conservative and wasn't ready for something like this. But today everyone is making these apps," says Israel, adding that they are seeing significant growth in tier 2 cities. "There are fewer opportunities to go out and meet people in such cities," says Israel, adding that a market opportunity exists not just with apps, but relationships in general. 

The Indian apps are looking to monetize through "freemium" models, where people can pay for certain features, like appearing first in a search. "We offer a subscription upgrade that allows members to appear first in search results, highlighted profile and send unlimited messages versus the five allowed daily for free," says Jay Chahil founder of Desi Crush. 

The skewed gender ratio of the country is even more skewed on mobile dating apps. On Tinder, it is 45 women to 55 men globally. The women to men ratio is 3:7 on Thrill and Desi Crush and 4:6 on Woo. Menon says that while talking to the target group during the app development, women expressed inhibitions about being on a network that is dominantly populated by men, and about men uploading fake profiles. 

"We want ours to be a curated community. 20% of the users who sign up on Woo are rejected," says Menon about quality control on his app. Desi Crush co-founder Jay Chahil points to the same problem. "Everyone on the app has to sign in through Facebook. We look for things like a certain number of pictures, and that the person is not married," says Chahil. 

Challenges for such apps in India range from inhibition towards taking online meetings offline, and bandwidth. Israel says it is they are keeping the app simple to accommodate low network spreads and low-end phones. 

However, change seems to be afoot. Menon also points out the way people have now begun to project their online selves. "Earlier, in the days of Orkut, and when Facebook had just entered the market, people would put up pictures of flowers or puppies as their display pictures. Now they are more confident about putting their real selves out there," he says. 

Telecom services restoring in Kashmir valley

NEW DELHI: Telecom services in the flood-hit Kashmir Valley are being normalised slowly with BSNL restoring around 80% of the affected network.

Other private players including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Reliance Communications (RCom) have also restored their network in various parts of the state ravaged by the floods.

BSNL said it has restored 92 base transceiver stations (BTS) or mobile towers which were affected by the floods and overall 473 towers are working in the Valley whereas 934 is the number for whole state.

In Srinagar city alone, 55 towers are up and running. The only towers which have not been restored are those submerged under water.

"The floods have mostly affected South Kashmir so we have changed settings of towers in North Kashmir in such a way that connectivity can be provided in South Kashmir," a BSNL official told PTI.

About 80% of the affected network has been restored, he added.

BSNL distributed 1,200 free SIM cards today. The state-run firm plans to distribute 5,000 SIMs.

"All district headquarters in Leh, Ladakh and Jammu have now been made fully operational. In Kashmir, connectivity has been restored in all the 4 critical Tehsils of Anantnag district namely Anantnag, Dooru, Kokernag, Shangus," Airtel said in a statement.

Idea said its network is now completely restored in Jammu and parts of Anantnag in Kashmir region.

Airtel PCOs have been set up in Poonch at Gujjar Hostel, Airfield and Nagli Sahb facilitating free calls for everyone 24X7. More PCOs are planned across relief camps.

"All 5 VSAT terminals we flew in to Srinagar have now been set up at critical areas to create public Wi-Fi hot spots at Badami Bagh, Bagat Barzulla Gurdwara and Srinagar Airport enabling free access to data services to all mobile phones users," Airtel said.

A Tool released by Apple to remove free U2 album from iTunes

NEW YORK: Some iPhone users are not happy that U2's new album, "Songs of Innocence," was automatically added to their iTunes music library, free of charge. In response, Apple has released a special tool that lets people remove the album from their collections. 

U2 played at an Apple event last week that included the unveiling of the iPhone maker's new smartwatch and updated iPhone models. In a surprise move, the Irish rock band performed at the event and put out its 11-song release. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the new album would be given to the company's 500 million iTunes users. The release showed up in users' iTunes music libraries. The company said Monday that 33 million iTunes account holders have accessed the free album. 

But some iTunes users took to Twitter to complain and ask how to remove it. While it was already possible to delete the album, Apple's tool makes it possible in one step.

Google: Data requests from governments worldwide up 150%

Google said it was facing increasing pressure from governments around the world to reveal user information in criminal investigations amid ongoing revelations about national surveillance programs.

The number of requests increased 15% sequentially in the first half of this year and 150% in the last five years, the company said in its semi-annual transparency report.

In the US, demand for information jumped 19% in the first six months of 2014 and more than tripled since 2009, when it started publishing the report.

President Barack Obama asked Congress in January to rein in the bulk collection and storage of records of millions of US domestic telephone calls after revelations last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Many American technology companies also have been clamouring for changes after seeing their international business suffer as foreign governments worried they would collect data and hand it over to US spy agencies.

YouTube videos to soon be available offline in India

In the coming few weeks, much of YouTube is going to be available offline in India, said Caesar Sengupta, vice president, product management at Google in the capital on Monday. "It's a very common way to use YouTube. You find videos you like, you tend to watch them over and over again," he said at the launch of Android One in the capital.

A Google spokesperson says that the offline availability will be the content owner's prerogative. "It will be available by default. Content owners can decide if they want to opt into it," the spokesperson said, adding that views of the videos and ads will be kept track of offline as well. 

Kanan Gill, who runs a YouTube series called Pretentious Movie Reviews along with fellow film reviewer Biswa Kalyan Rath, says that while the idea itself is "awesome", it is something that will need testing for content uploaders like him once made available. "It probably makes sense to have longer videos and podcasts made available offline so that people can watch it or listen to it at leisure," says Gill, who has nearly 85,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. 

Standup comedian Rohan Joshi, part of the group AIB that uploads humorous videos on YouTube regularly, says that if there is an accurate way to monitor views and ads, the new feature would work well. "There are a lot of internet connectivity issues in India. So that way, it is good, more people will watch these videos," says Joshi. AIB has over 6 lakh YouTube subscribers. 

So far, web services like "keepvid" and "clipconverter" could be used to download YouTube videos on to a laptop or a desktop. However, the legality of using such services is questionable. In this case, a user would have the content owner's consent to have the video available on their device, offline.

Microsoft to acquire Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5 billion

Microsoft Corp said on Monday it has agreed to acquire Stockholm-based games developer Mojang and the company's wildly popular Minecraft video game franchise for $2.5 billion. 

Microsoft said in a statement it expects the acquisition to be break-even in fiscal year 2015 on a GAAP basis. The deal is expected to close in late 2014. 

"Gaming is a top activity spanning devices, from PCs and consoles to tablets and mobile, with billions of hours spent each year," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. 

"Minecraft is more than a great game franchise — it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about, and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft."

Microsoft said it plans to continue to make Minecraft available across all the platforms on which it is available today: PC, iOS, Android, Xbox and PlayStation.