App to delete messages before it's received

Worried about a wrong message sent to your boss, parents or colleagues? Now you can delete it instantly before they read it.

An app called ''Invisible Text'' allows its users to permanently delete a message preventing it from reaching the other person. But with a clause, it can only be deleted if it hasn't been already opened by the recipient.

Another amazing advantage of the app is its timer facility, which allows the user to set a timer for a message to self-destruct itself if it is not read within a stipulated amount of time.

The app works for all kinds of messages be it videos, texts, voice or picture messages.

The app is available on Android, iOS and BlackBerry devices using a technology that combines message encryption with device pairing.

"To date, no other solution can ensure secure data transmission between two devices, including a smartphone, smart TV, computer, tablet, radio or webcam," the company said in a statement.

The recipient of the text you want to delete must also have "Invisible Text" app on his phone.

How to stay online and anonymous

Did you ever feel the urge to send a love/hate message to someone, but were afraid that it would come back to haunt you? Especially in this digital age of technology and smartphones, it is tough to keep your identity secret – but as always, there is an app for that. In fact, there are three apps, and free, for the iOs and Android platforms.

This is the app that started the trend. It requires your mobile number and a connection to your Facebook account. It does not misuse the information, and uses it only to authenticate you, and to tell you if the secrets being shared are by your friends or by ‘friends-of-friends’. No names are given out, and every time you reply to a secret, you have a brand new icon that only you know. Moreover, the icon changes with each thread.

Conversations are split into two types15 -- - those by your friends and friends-of-friends, and randomly selected threads, called Explore. Even here, in case you feel something is unacceptable, you can flag the conversation. There is also an option to follow a thread without commenting on it by subscribing to it. Also, if you posted something and don’t want it up online any more, you can also delete the post.

Secrets can range from your secret crush, to how you ate only cheese for dinner last night to your colleague’s secret vice. You can also share conversations on social media — though your identity will stand revealed.

The obvious problem with Secret is that it knows your Facebook identity and your phone number. This is where Yik Yak scores: there is no login, there is not even ownership of a thread. It uses the GPS on your phone to figure out your location and shows you recent posts from others in your area.

From funny experiences to news to rumours and real secrets, Yik Yak can help you get the word out. Options available: all-time Greatest Yaks, Top Yaks in your area, and other Top Yaks.

 

Since Yik Yak does not use a login system, you may not have access to your own posts if you use it on another device! But if you want to brag about how you watched a match during a presentation, go ahead. Yak about it.

Compared to Secret users, Yik Yak has a lower following as of now, so you may not find the same level of variety in conversations. But the community is growing.

'India is leading the fray globally for Samsung in software innovation in education'

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced the launch of its android-based education application under its Media Solutions Centre (MSC) division, as the company takes a shot at the e-learning market estimated at Rs 18.41 trillion. According to a Ken Research Report, the e-learning market - which includes the use of electronic media and all information and communication devices/technologies in education - is set to grow at a compounded annual rate of more than 17 per cent until 2018. Tarun Malik, Director - MSC for South-West Asia at Samsung Electronics, speaks to Shamni Pande about the $216.7-billion electronics giant's new initiative. Excerpts from the interview:
Q. Does the launch of the education application signal a strategic shift for Samsung?

A. Yes, it does. With the launch of our education application, we are initiating a big push in the software innovation space. If you look at the education space then we are looking at potentially 30 million school-going students in India, who we believe, are underserved in some ways. Of course, if you look at the entire universe of students, which includes special education, test-preparation and higher education, then this number is about 200 million.
We will initially focus on the K-12 segment and we are going to offer CBSE curriculum in an interactive manner for students. Down the line, we will also offer ICSE curriculum along with other boards. With this we hope to not only take position in the education/e-learning space, but also in software innovation for the first time. We are also partnering with Aakash Institute to offer test-preparation through their flagship iTutor product. We will not just offer learning, but also assessment content for class 8 up to class 10 as well as medical and engineering entrance exams.

Q. Will it challenge the position of established e-learning players, particularly those dealing in smart-class?
A. It does take us into the e-learning territory. However, we are not challenging others, but merely have worked on our capability sets to fill the existing gaps in the education system. Many players went to sell PC-based learning system to schools, which failed. Today, people like personal devices. Also, we identified some other areas where the learning will be aided by PDFs and simulation videos and even be delivered in 3D through our Smart TVs. There are many players, but none that has gone the whole nine yards to stitch it all up together. Besides, we do have leadership in tablets and Smart TV, so this launch is also focused on our devices. This means that people can buy our android-based app on Samsung Playstore.
Initially, we may just offer it as a promotional add-on with our devices, but we will be selling it. The entire curriculum for each class will cost about Rs 2,000 for one year. However, this price in not fixed and will vary according to the grade. Samsung 's Smart Learning app can be accessed anytime, anywhere with online and offline access points as it is cloud-based service. In short, we are very bullish about this space.
Q. Are you speaking to schools and the government and others for possible partnerships?

A. Yes, we have initiated talks, but we have no announcements to make yet. We initiatlly hope to increase our spread and will launch this commercially on Teachers' Day. About 7,000 stores in India have been equipped to sell education content on Samsung Galaxy Tab, which will be extended to 10,000 stores.
Q. What are the other spaces you are looking at?

A. This is just the beginning, you will hear of many new announcements in the software innovation space from us. There is a whole new team in the MSC that is mandated to come up with innovative applications in different spaces. Of course, they involve our devices. But the India market is leading the fray, globally for Samsung, in software innovation in education. Gradually, we will offer this in other Southeast Asian countries as well. 

India 4th-most affected country by mobile malware, claims F-Secure

India stands fourth in the lineup of countries most affected by mobile malware, says a new F-Secure study which notes that this obviously means the nation is a favorite amongst cyber criminals. The security solutions provider puts the UK, France and Saudi Arabia in the list of places suffering the most from such attacks based on the number of reported incidents.

Since India is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world and a vast portion of the population is en route to migrating to Internet-capable devices, it presents big opportunities for mischief makers, of course. In April to June 2014, 295 new threat families and variants were dug up. 294 of these were on Android and 1 was on iOS, according to F-Secure Lab’s Threat Report H1 2014.



To put things into perspective, 277 malware threats were detected in January to March 2014, with 275 of them aimed solely at Google’s Android OS. Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi figure among the top five infected cities. What’s more, tier II metropolitan areas are fast becoming the favorite destinations of cyber criminals messing around with mobile malware.

Ransomware which enters a mobile and restricts access to the gadget until the user pays a certain sum of money to the maker of the malware, will be the next wave of attack on phones. While this type of malicious program was initially sent out to target individuals, it is increasingly being deployed in the direction of enterprises or businesses too.

Back in June, a Slocker malware disguised as a legitimate application made the record as the first ransomware on the mobile platform, says The Economic Times. The foremost Android threats in the second quarter of this year consisted of Trojans built to grab data from a device and stream it to a remote server or to send text messages to premium numbers.

Even though F-Secure paints a bleak picture of the penetration of mobile malware in India, the situation will only get worse as more and more people start using connected devices.

Devnagri script domain ‘dot bharat’ launched by govt

The Indian government announced the roll-out of the Dot Bharat country code top-level domain name in the Devnagri script in eight regional languages. The idea is to let the non-English speaking part of the population type URLs in the tongue they understand best. Dot Bharat is technically the English version of Dot IN, just in case you’re wondering.



Websites in regional languages (also called IDNs standing for Internationalized Domain Names) will help encourage the development of content in such localized scripts too. This should slowly but surely allow for inclusive growth of the Internet. The Dot Bharat launch by the government in the Devnagri script encompasses Hindi, Konkani, Marathi and five other languages.

Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, has disclosed that the venture will continue to expand, with all Indian languages expected to be added to the roster in the near future, reports The Economic Times. IDNs in Bangla, Gujarati, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu will also be delivered by the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

In a move to push its Digital India initiative, the Indian government has been working on connecting the whole nation with wireless telephony and broadband networks. It has set aside Rs 20000 crore in order to bring mobile connectivity to 55000 villages in the country over the next five years. Then there’s the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) project estimated to cost Rs 35000 crore.

The aim is to provide high speed Internet access to 2.50 lakh gram panchayats by March 2017. 60000 villages are supposedly going to welcome broadband support in 2014. The years 2015 and 2016 are each anticipated to ring in web connectivity for 1 lakh rural regions. The government is looking towards NOFN to bring about an e-commerce revolution in India.

8 out of 10 internet consumers have privacy concerns over wearable devices

Nearly 80 % consumers have privacy concerns with wearable Internet of Things (IoT) connected technologies.



However, half of those same consumers were okay to share data if compensated with a coupon or discount.

The study conducted by Acquity Group, which is now part of Accenture Interactive, covered more than 2,000 consumers across the United States which reveals a gap in consumers' fears of data privacy and their actual purchasing behavior.

President of Acquity Group Jay Dettling said that companies should focus on specific benefits that sharing data will deliver to consumers.

Specifically, consumers are most willing to share wearable data for coupons and discounts based on their lifestyles (28 %), information on better workouts to reach their goals (22 %), information on the best foods to eat (22 %), coupons for fitness gear (19 %). 

Researchers hack into Gmail app; advise developers to increase security

You might have installed quite a few applications on your smartphones. You are quite positive about the fact that you and your data (especially emails) are secured, but a group of researchers from California have something else to say. Furthermore, you own a high-end smartphone, which is also added to the sense of security. But your smartphone, is probably under much risk than you can imagine or expect. The fact was revealed when six computer scientists were working on a project under University of California Riverside. According to the claims of the group of six, they seem to have found a way to hack into seven extremely popular applications with a high success rate.

According to the group of the researchers, the back door to the information could potentially lead to severe circumstances in case of individual matters. On the other hand, the group also feared that this weakness can also be sued to extract vital information from the users’ data without any hassle.

Zhiyun Qian, who is one of the authors has said that the development of Android tools is done on a lot of assumptions. The scenario might be the same for iOS and Windows Phone operating system too. The assumption among the masses in this case is that no application interfere with the working of another application. This is where the trouble creeps up.

As a part of testing their findings, the group of researchers tried to hack into the Gmail account of any random individual. They were able to enter the system with a success rate of approximately 92%. The research team has shown no intention of earning money from their findings. All they plan to do is submit this as their research work. They have also advised the developers to create a better mesh of security and have asked the users to abstain from installing applications without a certificate.

LG Announces Sonos-Like Hi-Fi Speakers Called Music Flow

Last night, LG entered the Hi-Fi home audio market by introducing a new brand of audio products, called Music Flow. Music Flow, as a brand, is made up of a set of home audio speakers along with a companion app that allows you to easily listen to your entire collection of digital music both outside and inside the home.

On one side of the Music Flow equation, you have a set of Hi-Fi speakers (plus a bridge) that are setup within your house. The speakers range in power from 70W to 40W to sound bars. With the tap of your device, thanks to NFC, you can play music through a speaker with ease (a “first” in home Hi-Fi systems). If the speakers are bridged throughout your house, you could carry on your music experience in each room, a lot like how Sonos works.

On the other side of Music Flow, you have a companion app called Music Flow Player. This app is the hub and controller for your speaker system. According to LG’s announcement, the app also lets you listen to your music collection outside of your home even if the music is stored on a variety of devices. The app lets you listen to internet radio stations (Spotify, Deezer, Napster, and TuneIn) and provides recommendations for playlists as well.

If you needed an actual reason to buy these, the system may have one special feature. Should you be out and about, jamming away to your music collection via phone, but then return home, you can continue listening without interruption on your Music Flow system at home. That’s kind of cool, right?

The collection of Music Flow products will be on display at IFA during the first week of September. Availability will start in the UK this month before spreading to other European markets next month. A global rollout should happen some time after that. No pricing was announced.

Dot Bharat domain to be unveiled on August 21

Web addresses are set to get multilingual in India. Soon you will be able to type in addresses in a web browser in the Devnagri script - with "dot bharat" standing in for the currently common "dot in" domain to begin with. The roll-out of the same begins on August 21.



In the 90-day "sunrise period" of the roll-out those with registered trademarks will be able to register domain names in languages that use the Devnagri script, such as Hindi, Marathi, Boro, Dogri etc. After the sunrise period, it will be thrown open to regular users of the internet.

The National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), an autonomous non-profit organisation, is responsible for peering of ISPs and routing the domestic traffic within the country. The NIXI and the government's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) have worked on enabling this country code top level domain (ccTLD) of dot bharat. They say more such domains in different scripts and languages will eventually follow.

Currently, one can find content in various languages online. However, the URLs or web addresses are in English. With this rollout, even URLs would be in Hindi or Marathi. "Once the sunrise period runs smoothly, we will introduce other languages in other scripts such as Bengali, Punjabi, Kannada, Telugu etc. There is no timeline set for it yet, but we hope there will be enough pressure with the adoption of the Devnagri domains to implement it soon," says Mahesh Kulkarni, program coordinator at the C-DAC, heading the language technology group.

A few government websites too will be a part of the launch next week by the union minister of communications and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad. "For example, the pmindia dot gov dot in will be pradhanmantri dot sarkar dot bharat," says Dr Govind, CEO of NIXI.

While some quarters have welcomed the introduction of the new domain, others are doubtful of its success given the low internet penetration and low literacy rate in the country. A June 2014 report from research firm eMarketer, India had the third largest online user-base globally after China and the US but had the lowest internet penetration growth in Asia Pacific at 17.4%. Osama Manzar, who heads the Digital Empowerment Foundation, suggests getting more people and public institutions online rolling out local language domain names.

"This is not a bad move, but I doubt and wonder if it will encourage people to buy domain names in Indian languages. Is it in sync with the national digital infrastructure? It is important that the government encourage every department and village panchayat to get online with a website along with this," says Manzar.

Sahitya Akademi-winning Hindi writer Uday Prakash finds the Devnagri domain a welcome move, but stresses on the importance of making quality content in regional languages available online. "It's a good step and will help those who are not comfortable with English. However, the problem remains that most of the content online is in English. If I search for Robin Williams in English, I will find hundreds of webpages. But if I google the same name in Devnagri, I'll hardly find anything," says Prakash.

On the other hand, there is also the view that the move towards a multilingual web need not follow a set path. "If a poor person buys a mobile phone before he build a toilet, who are we to judge? It is a market phenomenon. Like a jigsaw, some pieces of the puzzle may be worked out in advance. There are things like Indic input keyboards, text to speech and speech to text that need to be in place before an Indic language speaker can have the same experience as an English language user of the internet," says Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research organization Center for Internet and Society.

In October 2013, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) delegated generic top level domains in Arabic, Chinese and Cyrillic scripts. This was under the Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) fast track process of the ICANN, which began in 2009, inviting requests from countries for territory names in scripts other than Latin. Meanwhile domestically, the union government has made a push for the use of local languages.

Virgin America Distributing Nexus 7 Tablets Across Entire Fleet for Crew Members

If you fly Virgin America, be prepared to see the Nexus 7 making frequent appearances in the skies, as the company recently announced that they are to outfit their flight attendants with the Google and ASUS-made hardware.



Nicknamed the Crewpad, the device is used to help flight attendants assistant passengers better. For example, whenever you order food or drinks through Virgin’s inflight entertainment system, the attendant will receive a notification on their tablet, then fulfill your request.

In the company’s blog post covering the news, it states the Nexus 7 will allow Virgin to “constantly enhance the software,” on the device, meaning the service should only get better over time.

The Nexus 7 tablet from Google will replace our existing tablets, providing a thinner, lighter and faster solution and a state-of-the-art 7-inch touch screen. Our InFlight Teammates took the devices for a 30-day test run and shared great feedback, allowing them to deliver an even more efficient service to our guests. And the best part – the tablets will give us a great foundation for the future, with the ability to constantly enhance the software and make the service even more personalized for our guests…so watch this space!

Samsung Acquires SmartThings, Deal Reportedly Worth $200 Million

Yesterday afternoon, it was announced that Samsung was set to acquire SmartThings, a company specializing in home automation, for an estimated $200 million. SmartThings has had a short journey on its way to acquisition, having raised over a million dollars on Kickstarter, then receiving an additional $12.5 million in Series A funding late last year.

As for Samsung’s plans, it seems rather clear, as Google went ahead and snatched up Nest, and Apple launched HomeKit. Samsung does not plan on being left behind in this space, as SmartThings is now packing up its office and heading on over to Samsung’s main California office in Palo Alto.

So, what can we expect to see from Samsung down the road thanks to this purchase? For starters, SmartThings specializes in smart water sensors, door locks, light switches, and much more. In the future, these products could come with a Samsung logo on them, but for now, SmartThings will operate independently from the tech giant.

The next five years are looking pretty intense in the home automation space.

Google Acquires Image-Recognition Expert Jetpac for Undisclosed Sum

Jetpac is about to board its final flight, having been recently acquired by Google for an unknown sum. As part of the acquisition, the company isscuttling its iOS app—it's unknown at this time whether Google plans to integrate Jetpac's technology into its own services, or whether the acquisition was an "acqui-hire," to put it in Silicon Valley parlance.

As for what Jetpac does—soon, did—the company's iOS app is fairly simple, but rather novel in its application. It scans through Instagram photos to match up types of people with locations they're frequenting. This allows one to pull up the app and see what places are most frequented in a city by various personalities: pet lovers, foodies, business travelers, students, et cetera.

Jetpac, in essence, uses its analyses of Instagram photos to create city guides (more than 6,000 in all, by the time the app goes away on September 15). The guides themselves are full of "top 10" lists of things to do in particular locations, mostly focused on the most popular places to go (including how happy people look in the public Instagram pictures they take in these locations).

"You can now search for places to go to in the way that you naturally visualize it, rather than reading through an amenities list or parsing text reviews. People use it to quickly get a sense of a place and the people who go there – photos don't lie," explained Jetpac CEO Julian Green in a 2013 interview with TechCrunch.

And, of course, if you get bored scanning through cities for things to do, you can also put your visual acumen to the test by going through one of the app's photo quizzes to see if you can recognize a particular city via Instagram pictures.

While we somehow doubt Google will be building out little quizzes for its users using Jetpac's technology, it's certainly possible that the company's laser-like focus on facial recognition could prove handy for Google's social elements—yes, even Google+. Jetpac's tech could also be used to bolster Google's own local search and retail reviewing efforts.

Jetpac started up in 2011 and secured a $2.4 million funding round in 2012, which included investors like Khosla Ventures, Morado Venture partners, and former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang.

Screenshots show Google working on a redesigned Hangouts for Chrome codenamed ‘UltraViolet’

According to new screenshots posted by Caschys Blog (above and below), Google appears to be working on a new Hangouts experience for Chrome currently dubbed “Ultra Violet.”

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of information currently other than what we can see in the screenshots. What we do see is a much slicker UI with some navigation changes and new floating, circular icons for contacts that look at lot like Facebook’s chat heads. On top of the improved contact management, there also appears to be a conversation view showing all active conversations baked into the main chat window.

We’ll have to wait and see if this is something Google is testing as an add-on feature, or something to replace its current Hangouts Chrome extension entirely. It could also be a first look at how Google might redesign the Hangouts experience outside of just the Chrome desktop extension. Head below for another screenshot:

Oxigen Social Mobile Wallet Service Launched In India

Oxigen Service, which was launched ten years ago as Payment Solution Provider , has expanded its portfolio keeping in view of widespread use of social networking sites with the proliferation of smartphones in India. Oxigen India Services has launched today India’s first social mobile wallet service, Oxigen Wallet. With this new service, people will now be able to share money with their friends and family over their preferred social networks and messaging platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Google+, and Twitter. They will also be able to use their wallet to recharge their mobile phones, pay bills and shop across a large number of online merchants.



Ankur Saxena President Technology Innovation Oxigen Krishna Angara Board Member Director Fastacash Vince Tallent Chairman CEO Fastacash Pramod Saxena Founder MD Oxigen Sunil kulkarni Deputy MD Oxigen

The Oxigen Wallet service app is currently available on Android and Apple devices and can be downloaded for free from Google Play Store and Apple Store. This app will be available shortly on Windows smartphones and on other platforms. The users now have the option to send money to their friends and family using their favorite social channel, without ever needing the receiver’s bank account details. Along with money, users can also send photos, videos, and audio and text messages to personalize the transfer. In the coming weeks, users will also be able to gift or ask for a mobile recharge.

With Oxogen Wallet, you can recharge your mobile phones, pay for utilites bills and can also transfer money to your friends and dear ones. The limit for sending the money is Rs. 10,000 per month and at a time, you can transfer Rs, 5,000 without the need to provide your id details. However, for transferring the maximum amount of Rs. 50,000 per month and effecting a single transaction of Rs. 25,000/-, you would be required to provide your id details.

Oxigen Services has claimed to process over 2 billion payment transactions exceeding Rs. 20,000 crores in ten years, through small retail, modern retail chains and banking websites and has revolutionised money transfer services for the unbanked population through its connect with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). Oxigen serves several hundred million mobile customers at retail, processing nearly half a billion transactions annually, has already acquired 1.5 million mobile wallet accounts, clocking close to 1 million transactions a month. Ranked number 1, on NPCI’s mobile banking platform IMPS, facilitating Instant Money Transfer across 60+ banks in India,Oxigen has introduced the social mobile wallet service to leverage the social connect to India’s 900 million mobile users and 100 million Facebook accounts.

The salient feature of Oxigen Wallet service is that it is RBI licensed and comes with built in multiple layers of security features.This service is bank and operator agnostic; which means that everyone on a mobile irrespective of telecom operator can download the app and use the Oxigen Wallet. A consumer can also easily send money to a non-wallet user by simply selecting the receiver from their social network, email or phone list.

Speaking at the launch event,  Pramod Saxena, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director of Oxigen Services (India) Pvt. Limited, said,” Merging payments with social and mobile will change the way people pay for their everyday needs. We will continue to evolve the service by adding more products & features, thereby creating an ecosystem for payments where you will no longer need multiple mobile apps for payments of different services. In other words, a single mobile app will meet all your payment needs and set money free, in its true senses.”

Google Play Music offering free songs from Nirvana, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Daft Punk and others

Are you looking for a new playlist to get you through your morning commute? If so, Google Play Music has nine freebie tracks up for grabs that might make that ride into work, school or wherever a little bit smoother. Songs like Drake’s Hold On, We’re Going Home, Kendrick Lamar’s Bitch Don’t  Kill My Vibe, and Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream are all on the house!

If those aforementioned artists don’t float your boat, Rihanna’s We Found Love, Daft Punk’s One More Time, Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party, and Luke Bryan’s Crash My Party will only cost you a the time spent pointing and clicking on the button marked “free.” Still not sold? How about Lorde’s Royals or Nirvana’s Lithium for the low, low price of nothing? There’s no telling how long these tracks will remain free, so if you’ll want to move quickly to take advantage of this offer.

Why is Google’s Mapathon in hot waters in India? All you need to know

Google’s Mapathon that took place in India last year has been caught up in a legal limbo ever since. From compromising our national security to facing CBI ire for ‘continuously polluting the web’, the mapping initiative has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Those who are wondering what the whole Google Mapathon India conundrum is all about, here’s everything we know so far.

Google Mapathon 2013 that took place in February and March invited users to add information about their local areas for Google Maps in India. Google at the time said Mapathon would serve to make more local information easily accessible to all users of the Maps service. The company had promised the top 1,000 mappers prizes in the form of tablets, smartphones and gift vouchers.

Needless to say, the main purpose of the contest was to map accurate geographical information in Google Maps for India. The controversy was first fuelled by complaints that the competition violated India’s cartographical laws and Google did not seek the necessary permission from the authorities.

The controversy was further fuelled when Google announced the winner of the competition Vishal Saini, who mapped the city of Pathankot.

Pathankot is extremely close to the border of India’s Jammu and Kashmir and what Pakistan calls Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). With three wars being fought there, there is the possibility of military installations around, states DemocracyChronicles.

Mapping sensitive areas

Now, it makes sense that the government of India wouldn’t want anyone and everyone to know where those military installations are. The report further points out that ‘when Vishan Saini submitted his contest-winning map to Google, he included a large area labelled “Military Area,” according to Popular Science‘.

The report also noted that the “Survey of India creates and maintains maps to ensure that sensitive military installations don’t show up on maps for civilians. And, Google didn’t seek permission from the authorities before launching its competition.”

Here is a timeline of the controversy so far:

* In March 2013, it was BJP’s Tarun Vijay who raised the concern that Mapathon violated India’s cartographical laws, and Delhi Police began investigating whether the search giant did indeed violate Indian law. The complaint, which led to the investigation, was filed by the Survey of India, which said the contest was illegal and could even threaten national security.

* The Survey of India first contacted Google to intimate the company about the violation of rules and then filed a complaint with the police. RC Padhi, an official at the Survey of India, had then told Reuters. “We have to ensure that security is not compromised at any cost”. He also said that some information uploaded on Google Maps by Mapathon participants could be “sensitive“. The Survey’s complaint filed on March 25, 2013 at the RK Puram police station read, “Mapathon 2013 activity is likely to jeopardise national security interest and violates the National Map Policy. Citizens of the country, who are ignorant of the legal consequences, are likely to violate the law of the land.”

* In response Google had stated that the contest was in line with all the country’s laws. The Times of India  had quoted a Google spokesperson as saying, “The Survey of India contacted Google regarding the Mapathon contest on March 22, and, as requested by them, we responded to them on March 25 and offered to meet them to discuss their concerns.” The spokesperson added, “We have not heard back from them… we are always available to discuss any concerns that they or other agencies might have regarding our programmes.”

* Soon, the Delhi Police wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), requesting it to refer the Mapathon case to the CBI’s cyber crime cell. The CBI has been asked to look into the matter as the contest was a nationwide activity and it is alleged that sensitive information could have changed hands during the contest, encouraging citizens to plot out their neighbourhoods.

* The most recent report claims that Google has continued to “pollute” the web with classified material despite being warned against it. After registering a Preliminary Enquiry against Google for alleged mapping of classified areas, CBI has sought help of Survey of India to prove it.

* As the probe continues, Surveyor General of India Swarna Subba Rao alleged that the Internet giant did not refrain from mentioning classified site even after having been asked not to do so. He said, instead of desisting, Google “polluted the Internet” with the coordinates of classified locations on the map. “They (Google) have expressed their desire to meet me at some hotel but I have been firm of a meeting in office,” he said.

* Google has been tight lipped and hasn’t released any official statement yet. We’ll keep you posted as more details surface.

Selling an Old iPhone? Here Are Things to Consider

Apple usually announces a new iPhone in September, so it’s not too early to start thinking about your old iPhone.



It has some value. In fact, it may be worth a lot more than you think, even if it is scratched and has a broken screen. You might be able to get over $100 for such a beat-up phone. But the value of the smartphone seems to depend as much on what carrier you use as how much storage (or memory) it has.

You can sell old iPhones — a lot of Android phones, too — to a number of online companies. Gazelle.com, cashforiphones.com, usell.com and icracked.com are just a few of them. Amazon and eBay are also vibrant marketplaces for used iPhones. I don’t know which one offers the best price or which are the most reputable. I don’t have enough used iPhones to do comparison testing.

But looking at the prices offered for the used iPhone 5s may offer some insight into what phone to buy next if you intend to sell it after a few years of use.

Before going on, may I just stop and say I am not suggesting you buy a new phone. Use the phone you have as long as you can, as you would a car or a refrigerator. There are few good reasons to replace a phone every year or two.

O.K., now on to the observations. First, the phone’s color doesn’t seem to matter a whit.

Memory does matter, but not the way you might think. It makes sense to buy a phone with as much memory as you can afford, since it soon becomes packed with memory-hogging apps, magazines, emails, messages and photos. But if you think in terms of resale, you get the best return on a phone with the smallest amount of memory.

Apple sells its base 16 gigabyte 5s phone for $200 and then doubles the memory and bumps the price up $100. But the additional memory does nothing for the resale value, according to a number of resale sites. (I used data from gazelle.com as a representative example.) Your best return is the base 16GB memory phone, but in every case the value of the 64 GB phone drops.

What matters most is the carrier providing the service. Verizon iPhones have the best resale value. A 16GB phone can actually be worth 62.5 percent more than you paid for it (if you bought your phone with a contract). An AT&T phone does almost as well; its 16GB phone can be worth 40 percent more. (All values were computed using an undinged phone.)

Sad, sad Sprint. A phone on that carrier loses value in all cases.

The phones retain and even gain value because they can be sold to people in the United States where Verizon and AT&T are the most popular networks, or overseas where the phones are compatible with a country’s system of cell towers.

Cracked screens can be replaced and light scratches buffed out. But remember, if you monogrammed your phone or had your name printed on it, sorry. No one, anywhere, thinks it is cool to own that phone.

Gmail, Yahoo Make Phone Number Mandatory for New Email Ids

World's most popular free email providers Gmail and Yahoo have made telephone number mandatory for creation of new email addresses in a bid to check spam.



Any person wishing to create a new email id needs to provide a telephone number which Gmail and Yahoo use for verification.

Google India spokesperson claimed giving phone number was optional but repeated attempts to create a new email address on Gmail by skipping the mobile number requirement failed.

The Gmail website said that move to seek phone number is to check spam email senders.

"In an effort to protect our users from abuse, we sometimes ask users to prove they're not a robot before they're able to create or sign in to accounts. Having this additional confirmation via phone is an effective way to keep spammers from abusing our systems," the website said.

Google has also limited number of accounts that a person using one telephone number can create but the website did not specify the maximum number of email account it will allow.

While for Gmail a person can give either telephone or mobile number, for a new Yahoo it is now mandatory to have a mobile number.

"At Yahoo, we are committed to the security of our users. We ask our users to provide their mobile number at registration as a secondary means of authentication, in addition to their password. We would only use the number if we see any unusual activity on the account," Yahoo spokesperson said.

Internet Service Providers Association of India said that there is no regulatory requirement for making telephone number mandatory for having an email address and condemned the move as such practice could expose privacy of an individual.

"This is an attack on user's privacy. This should not happen. If they (Gmail and Yahoo) are doing such a thing, then this must be recognised by Indian government on how they are collecting phone numbers," ISPAI President Rajesh Chharia said.

Internet companies have been advocating at global level that there should be no kind of restriction on use of Internet and if there are any regulations on Internet, then the cost associated with compliance of those regulations should be such that it should not check proliferation of Internet usage.

Though number of telecom subscriber is over 90 crore in India, a survey conducted by research firm Juxt in 2013 showed there were only about 55.48 crore people in the country who actually owned a mobile device.

7 ways to create better, stronger passwords

This week's news that a Russian crime ring has amassed some 1.2 billion username and password combinations makes now a good time to review ways to protect yourself online.



The hacking misdeeds were described in a New York Times story based on the findings of Hold Security, a Milwaukee firm that has a history of uncovering online security breaches.

Hold Security, called the data "the largest known collection of stolen Internet credentials." Hold's researchers did not identify the origins of the data or name the victim websites, citing nondisclosure agreements. The company also said it didn't want to name companies whose websites are still vulnerable to hacking, according to the Times report.

Hold Security didn't immediately respond to inquiries from The Associated Press.

If there's reason to believe any of your passwords might have been compromised, change them immediately. One of the best things you can do is to make sure your passwords are strong. Here are seven ways to fortify them:

1. Make your password long. The recommended minimum is eight characters, but 14 is better and 25 is even better than that. Some services have character limits on passwords, though.

2. Use combinations of letters and numbers, upper and lower case and symbols such as the exclamation mark. Some services won't let you do all of that, but try to vary it as much as you can. "PaSsWoRd!43" is far better than "password43."

3. Avoid words that are in dictionaries, even if you add numbers and symbols. There are programs that can crack passwords by going through databases of known words. One trick is to add numbers in the middle of a word - as in "pas123swor456d" instead of "password123456." Another is to think of a sentence and use just the first letter of each word - as in "tqbfjotld" for "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."

4. Substitute characters. For instance, use the number zero instead of the letter O, or replace the S with a dollar sign.

5. Avoid easy-to-guess words, even if they aren't in the dictionary. You shouldn't use your name, company name or hometown, for instance. Avoid pets and relatives' names, too. Likewise, avoid things that can be looked up, such as your birthday or ZIP code. But you might use that as part of a complex password. Try reversing your ZIP code or phone number and insert that into a string of letters. As a reminder, you should also avoid "password" as the password, or consecutive keys on the keyboard, such as "1234" or "qwerty."

6. Never reuse passwords on other accounts - with two exceptions. Over the years, I've managed to create hundreds of accounts. Many are for one-time use, such as when a newspaper website requires me to register to read the full story. It's OK to use simple passwords and repeat them in those types of situations, as long as the password isn't unlocking features that involve credit cards or posting on a message board. That will let you focus on keeping passwords to the more essential accounts strong.

The other exception is to log in using a centralized sign-on service such as Facebook Connect. Hulu, for instance, gives you the option of using your Facebook username and password instead of creating a separate one for the video site. This technically isn't reusing your password, but a matter of Hulu borrowing the log-in system Facebook already has in place. The account information isn't stored with Hulu. Facebook merely tells Hulu's computers that it's you. Of course, if you do this, it's even more important to keep your Facebook password secure.

7. Some services such as Gmail even give you the option of using two passwords when you use a particular computer or device for the first time. If you have that feature turned on, the service will send a text message with a six-digit code to your phone when you try to use Gmail from an unrecognized device. You'll need to enter that for access, and then the code expires. It's optional, and it's a pain - but it could save you from grief later on. Hackers won't be able to access the account without possessing your phone. Turn it on by going to the account's security settings.

Google begins displaying “Listen Now” ads for streaming music services in search results

Google appears to be experimenting with new “Listen Now” ads in search results for streaming music services including its own Google Play Music and competitors like Apple’s Beats Music. The Wall Street Journal first noticed the ads and confirmed the new format with Google:

The ads appear in searches on personal computers as well as mobile devices and are performing well for some advertisers, according to one person familiar with the results. Music services previously could have bought similar ads, but the grouping, display and labeling are new. “We’re happy to help users quickly find legitimate sources for their favorite movies, music and more via Google search,” a Google spokesman said.

Google also confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that the music services pay per click just like traditional ads it displays in search. Along with its own Google Play service and Apple’s Beats Music, the Listen Now section is also currently showing ads from Rhapsody and Spotify.

Google has experimented with other types of links for content in search results including “Watch Now” links for movies and tv that direct users to its Google Play service. It also recently laucnhed app indexing on Android, which displays a button for users to quickly launch apps from search results.