THE GOLDEN SPARROW ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 08-14, 2016
PUNE
TECH/START-UP
“A red panda is an animal native to the Himalayas and southwestern China. The English word for red panda is ‘Firefox’ which is where the browser gets its name from – so the Firefox logo is actually a red panda, not a fox!” — http://www.thefactsite.com/
World court rejects Marshall case P8
Google’s double edge for India
While making a foray into hardware globally, the Net giant announces a slew of India-angled software goodies BY ANAND PARTHASARATHY
The ancient Chinese had a benediction: ‘May you live in interesting times!’ If you are a Google user—and who isn’t—this has been a week packed with more-than-average interest. To start with, Google hosted an event in Delhi to announce a slew of Indiaspecific software and service initiatives. Then in San Francisco on Tuesday, it announced its long expected foray into hardware—after dominating the other two infotech sectors, software and services, for decades. It unveiled the first Google-branded smart phone, seemingly aimed at the end of the market that is dominated by the iPhone. To begin in the beginning: On September 27, Google announced several new products, platforms and programmes to increase India’s participation in the Internet: l YouTube Go, is a new mobile app to load and play YouTube videos smoothly across various connectivity situations, and to provide users control over their data consumption. The app also has a new feature that lets users share videos easily with friends and family nearby, without using any data. The app is currently India-only. To try it out, one has to sign up at youtubego.com. l Building on its partnership with Indian Railways and RailTel to provide Wi-Fi at 400 railway stations in India, the company announced Google Station, which gives partners an easy set of tools to rollout Wi-Fi hotspots in public places. Google Station will provide software and guidance on hardware to turn fibre connections into fast, reliable and safe Wi-Fi zones. Users will get a fast Wi-Fi experience with a simple and unified login, while making it much easier for venues to manage their networks. More info on how to get WiFi to your venues here:
station.google.com. to 2-times faster, saving l Included in more than 9 percent of Google’s recently user data. Chrome for launched messaging Android also adds a new app Allo is a preview Download feature that edition of the chat-based lets users save web pages, Google Assistant. In videos, music, and pictures the app, you can ask the on their phone. All Assistant questions and downloaded contents can let it help you get things be accessed in Chrome’s done directly right in your new Downloads tab, even chats. This is currently when the users are offline. available in English, but And if they go offline later in the year, will before downloading is be available in Hindi. complete, the process What’s more, when Allo will automatically resume suggests responses to the next time they’re Google Pixel messages so you can respond connected. quickly in English and Hinglish. l Starting last week, the Android app l In India where connectivity is Google News and Weather has added a sometimes a challenge, the Google Chrome new feature called “Lite mode” for people browser now offers an expanded Data Saver on low-bandwidth connections that keeps mode, to reduce the amount of data the the headlines and trims the rest of the browser uses on Android mobile devices, components down to their essentials so that computers, and Chromebooks. This new the app loads more quickly. This mode uses update will support MP4 videos, saving less than one-third the data. Slower networks up to 67% of video data. Also, Chrome on will trigger Lite mode automatically. Android will automatically optimize pages Some made-for-India solutions have to their essentials when 2G-like networks gone global: India inspired Google to make are detected. These simplified pages load up Maps Offline—a way to download a map
Autoyaar comes to Pune
Autoyaar co-founders (from left) Sunil Gupta, Bharat Ostwal, Abhishek Gupta and Amisha Shah
For just over a month now, Puneites who know about it, having been using a convenient web portal to locate and book a reliable neighbourhood agency to service their two or four wheeled vehicle, have the battery or tyres attended to—or just to use the services of a car spa. After a successful opening in Ahmedabad, Autoyaar (www. autoyaar.com) came to Pune with the expectation that the tech-savvy people here would welcome a service that takes away a perennial worry: How can I get my car or bike repaired without a lot of hassle— having to locate a reliable garage, bargaining over the cost, delivering and collecting the vehicle on a working day? Autoyaar’s USP is that it provides a one-stop-shop for all your vehicle worries—especially after the warranty or free service period is over and you have to fend for yourself. “Many owners prefer to get their services from third party agencies after the warranty period
IT is like that...
Startup brings ease of online booking, to automobile servicing
which is typically 3 years”, explains Autoyaar co-founder Amisha Shah, “It is usually cheaper that way”. But finding a reliable and trustworthy garage is always a challenge. Autoyaar solves that problem by auditing and signing up a large number of such third party servicing agencies after rigorous checks of their work quality. Once you go to the website and enter what you want done, Autoyaar will locate the best and nearest agency and arrange for someone to come to take your vehicle and return it—mostly on the same day. It will provide an estimate of the charges it has negociated with the garage. “Our rates are usually 20-30 percent lower than what you would encounter on your own”, Amisha adds, “ Many office goers prefer to have their car or two-wheeler collected after they get to their workspot and to have it delivered in time to them before they leave for home”. The customer has to deal only with Autoyaar who will manage the repair or service and facilitate online payment—unless you prefer otherwise. Pune has been an encouraging experience for them, says Amisha. A B.Com and an MBA in marketing, she gave up a lucrative professional career after six years, to join three other co-founders. Bharat Ostwal is a BE in Mechatronics with an MBA in Marketing; Abhishek Gupta is a BE Mechanical who worked earlier with Tata Motors and Mahindra. Sunil Gupta is an MSc statistics and an MBA in marketing who, like Amisha, used to work for the Gujarat-based Kalthia group with interests in engineering and automobiles. Together they brought enough subject experience to venture into the uncharted territory of automobile services, married to the Web. They quickly ramped up to over 1600 customers in Ahmedabad, but indications are, Pune will be even better. IndiaTechOnline
Credit card-sized supercomputer is here The launch in India of visual computing leader NVIDIA’s Jetson TX1, opens the doors for developers here to build solutions around the world’s first supercomputer that fits in the palm of your hand. The TX1 module with 256 processing cores delivers, 1 tera flop or a trillion computer operations a second. It can handle 4K or ultra high definition video. It comes with 16 GB of onboard storage, can be programmed in Linux
and has networking capability via WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet. One of the first applications it is fueling, is the guidance and control of autonomous drones and robots. it is also the first embedded computer designed to process deep neural networks, that mimic the human brain. For developers, the Jetson TX1 is available as part of a Rs 79,000 kit, which enables them to smoothly transition from development to manufacturing and production. IndiaTechOnline
to your phone so you can navigate around town even without a data connection. But now people around the world, especially in the U.S. and Europe, are using offline maps to get seamless navigation in mountainous areas or patches in urban centers where connectivity is cut. Now, back to the Google launch in San Francisco on October 4 about which the media is going ga-ga. Having dominated the web software-n-service space with its Google search engine, Chrome browser and Android operating system for phones, the company has entered the only remaining arena in IT—hardware. It unveiled 2 models of a new Google-branded smart-phone— Pixel—completely designed and developed inhouse. The phones will be manufactured by Taiwan-based HTC. Pixel and Pixel plus as they are called sport 4GB RAM, and the storage is 32 GB or 128 GB. The front and back cameras on both models are 12.3 MP and 8 MP— claimed to be the best in the industry. Pixel is a 5 inch full HD screen. Pixel Plus is larger at 5.5 inch. Both are single SIM devices in an era of twin-SIM phones. They come with the new Type C USB, though they still helpfully sport a 3.5mm audio jack and also the older standard USB 3 port. The phones are fueled by the upcoming Android 7 nougat version of the OS. The phones come built-in with a new Google Assistant, similar to iPhone’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Windows’ Cortana, and runs on Artificial Intelligence, making it cleverer, more intuitive. Pixel’s batteries are 2770 mAh and 3450 mAh respectively, and they promise all-day working. Pixel will cost Rs 57,000 in India. Google has also launched a Virtual Reality headset, Daydream View, for $ 79 (Rs 5500), a new 4K version of its video streaming dongle, Chromecast ($ 69 /Rs4800), and a smart Google Home speaker for $ 129 (Rs 9000). That makes four hardware items from the world’s biggest Internet software company! Clearly a turning point for Google! IndiaTechOnline
APP WORLD Click and you shall find!
The camera on your phone can do more than shoot pictures. Here are some useful phone camera apps
BY VISHNU ANAND
Make your phone burglar proof ‘Kanoon ke haath lambe hote hain’ – your smart phone will be laughing with this popular Bollywood line, because it has much longer hands now. With the iGotYa app, you can identify the ‘thief’ who is attempting to hack into your phone. The app snaps a picture of anyone trying to access your device with an incorrect security code and sends it to your email ID. The iGotYa app is available for Android at Rs. 79.99.
Dress up your living room
Urban Ladder, an Indian online furniture mart, has created an app that uses your phone camera to bring alive furniture in your home. Using a complex algorithm, the Living spaces app requires you just to place a downloadable ‘marker’ at the space of your choice and envision how a piece of furniture will look at the particular spot. Once you zero in on your preference, you can of course, proceed to place an order. The app leverages Augmented Reality and 3D modeling, on the input captured by your phone camera. The app is available for download on Android and iOS.
Scanning on-the-go
The CamScanner app turns your phone into a portable scanner. You can scan and share your documents on the go with this app. It also lets you crop, edit, and enhance picture quality. The app also lets you passwordprotect your docs, much like your document editing software on the desktop/laptop. The app also extracts texts from image using OCR (optical character recognition). You can a share the document as PDF/JPEG Files and instantly print out docs with a nearby printer. Not all these functions are available in the free version. CamScanner is available for download on Android and iOS. A similar app called Office Lens is available for Windows Phone users.
IndiaTechOnline
Cool laser measuring tool from Bosch There’s more to Bosch than spark plugs! The company has launched the GLM 50 C, a professional laser measuring tool, that is simple enough to be operated, by lay users. You just click the main button and point at a wall—up to 50 metres away—and the bright red white and blue display tells you the distance in metres, accurate to 1.5 - 3.0 mm. A function button lets you select different measurements-- area, volume, inclination, wall surface (useful for estimating how much paint to buy!). It is also clever enough to do
rough indirect measurement if there are obstacles in the direct path. It weighs just 320 grams and runs for days from two AAA batteries. Bosch has created a mobile app to go with the GLM 50C where the measurements can be ploughed into different projects or reports. A great tool for the handyman who will love it. And so will the rest of us who are used to using steel tape and foot rulers for measurements in the home, but aspire to do it like the pros. The price is Rs 9,500 at Flipkart or Amazon. IndiaTechOnline
‘We’ll help you channel the change!’ Their roots lay with Tata Consulting Services—albeit in different spheres. L.C. Singh was a Senior Vice President looking after TCS operations in UK, South Africa and the Middle East. Minoo Dastur headed the company’s corporate banking group. In August of 2000, having helped TCS successfully ride the Y2K challenge, Singh and Dastur left to start their own company in Pune. They started from scratch, which is probably why they named their new entity, Nihilent Technologies, after the Latin word ‘Nihil’ which means ‘nothing’. But everything emerges from nothing and pretty soon, ‘nihil’ morphed into something substantial: bringing a holistic approach to solutions management, where they prepare for change reaction with every solution, then fill the gaps that will inevitably manifest. To do this Nihilent has crafted a suite of proprietary tool, of which the flagship is called MC3. (Nihilent’s logo takes the theme that something can be ‘created’ out of ‘nothingness’ even further. It is an egg, cracking open with ideas) Today, that company has been assessed at the highest level 5
of SEI CMMI (Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration, a method to evaluate and measure the maturity of the software development process of an organizations). Its diverse portfolio ranges from consulting to enterprise IT services and products. Its footprint spans 5 continents and its clients include the Mothercare brand in the UK and the South African Nedbank. Indeed for historical reasons, a lot of Nihilent’s clients are based in Africa, particularly South Africa. In recent months the company has acquired other entities like Intellect Bizware, a leading SAP practitioner to ICRA Techno Analytics, an analytics expert. Having carved a niche and a name for itself in the enterprise solutions space, Nihilent has also ensured that its name will be familiar to thousands of innovators and developers working towards Digital India. From inception, Nihilent is a title-sponsor of the annual Computer Society of India-Nihilent awards for e-governance... their way of giving something back to society. IndiaTechOnline
Co-founder-CEO LC Singh (Pink Shirt) with some Nihilent staffers. The company has heavy presence in Africa