No tears in Bhopal for Anderson

There was no redemption for Warren M. Anderson — accused no. 1 in the criminal case pertaining to the Bhopal gas tragedy — in life. On Thursday, it seemed there was none in death. Hearing of his death, a full one month after he passed away at a nursing home in Vero Beach, Florida, on September 29, survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy assembled outside the now-defunct Union Carbide factory and placed a large portrait of him. Then, one by one, they spat at the photograph. With his death, the struggle to get the former CEO of Union Carbide extradited has hit a dead end.

Modi govt's austerity drive: No 5-star hotel meetings, first-class flights for bureaucrats

The government on Thursday unveiled an austerity drive aimed at cutting non-plan expenditure by 10%. It has barred bureaucrats from travelling first class on overseas visits and have been asked to use video conferencing as much as possible.

With an aim to restrict fiscal deficit to 4.1% of GDP in 2014-15, the finance ministry has barred officials from holding meetings in 5-star hotels and put a freeze on fresh appointments and filling up posts lying vacant for over one year.

"While officers are entitled to various classes of air travel depending on seniority, utmost economy would need to be observed while exercising the choice keeping the limitations of budget in mind. However, there would no bookings in the First Class," said the office memorandum.

The facility of video conferencing, it said, "may be used effectively".

The finance ministry said purchase of new vehicles to meet operational requirement of defence forces, paramilitary forces and security organisations are permitted but ban on purchase of any other vehicles would continue.

"Such measures are intended at promoting fiscal discipline, without restricting the operational efficiency of the government. In the context of the current fiscal situation, there is a need to continue to rationalise expenditure and optimise available resources," it said.

The government proposes to lower the fiscal deficit to 3% of GDP by 2016-17. The deficit which had touched a high of 5.7% in 2011-12, was brought down to 4.8% in 2012-13 and further to 4.5% in 2013-14 by way of austerity measures.

"The task before me is very challenging because we need to revive growth, particularly in manufacturing sector and infrastructure," finance minister Arun Jaitley had said in his budget speech. He added that choice has to be made whether or not to be victims of mere populism and wasteful expenditure.

Oppo N3 with 16MP motorized camera and R5 the world’s thinnest handset outed

The Oppo N3 smartphone which is the successor to the widely popular N1, and the R5 handset have been made official at last. Both devices are pretty impressive ones with the former flaunting a rotating camera and other great features, while the latter has earned the title of the world’s slimmest smartphone.
Let’s start with the Oppo N3 which augments the rotating camera design launched on its predecessor. While the concept is still the same, the company has thrown in a better snapper which is an OmniVision OV16825 16MP sensor and dual LED flash. The module is also motorized and you’ll be able to move it around through simple gestures on the screen.



Other interesting features include a fingerprint reader on the rear and a dual-sided notification light on the bottom. The phone is made from an industrial grade aluminum alloy and offers VOOC rapid charge which juices up the 3000mAh battery to 70% in just 30 minutes.

The N3 carries a 5.5-inch 1080p display on the front, while the innards are comprised of 2GB RAM, 32GB storage and a 2.3GHz quad core Snapdragon 801 SOC amongst others. Coming to the R5, this handset is also designed from the same industrial grade aluminum alloy and it’s just 4.85mm thick, making it even slimmer compared to the Gionee Elife S5.1



Here’s an overview of the Oppo R5’s key specs:
- OS: Android 4.4 (ColorOS 2.0)
- Chipset: 1.5GHz octa core 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SOC
- Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB storage
- Display: 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED touchscreen
- Camera: 13MP rear, 5MP front
- Battery: 2000mAh
- Dimensions: 48.9mm x 74.5mm x 4.85mm
- Weight: 155 grams
The Oppo N3 is priced at $649 and the R5 will be available for $499. However, the OEM is still keeping mum about the availability details for both handsets.

Truecaller lanches new Truedialler app on Play Store

Truecaller has launched a new Android app called Truedialler, which provides details of a number you attempt to contact before the outgoing call is placed.
Available for free on the Google Play Store, the app is the company's attempt at making the standard phonebook app irrelevant, allowing users to see the name and profile photo of some they want to call, even if they don't have it saved locally. The Truedialler app is synced with the existing Truecaller data network, meaning users who have installed the Truecaller app will have their own details visible for others on Truedialler, and vice-versa. The company, however, says it has no plans yet to integrate the two apps into a single unit.

PM Narendra Modi browses internet at 34Mbps: Report

It is not a hidden fact that the Internet speeds in India are borderline abysmal, but that fact does not pertain to the Prime Minister's office. While the average broadband Internet speed in India is around 2mbps, the speed in the country's highest office is 34mbps, if a Times of India report is to be believed. Reportedly, this was revealed in an RTI application.

Apparently, the National Informatics Centre is providing a speed up to 34mbps. While this number is good for India, in the US, Google's Fibre broadband service provides speeds up to 1gbps, which is almost 30 times faster. In fact, even in Kochi's 'Start Up Village', speed up to 1Gbps is provided.
The average peak connection speed in India is around 14.2mbps, and only 1.2 per cent people in the country enjoy speeds beyond 10mbps.

Earlier in the year, India was ranked an abysmal 115 in Akamai's 'State of Internet' report. The report ranked South Korea no.1 with its maximum Internet speed reaching 24.6mbps. Clearly, the state of Internet is not great in India, but Prime Minister Modi's Digital India plan intends to resolve this. He has dedicated a budget of 1 lakh crores so that high-speed Internet is offered in all villages and this plan is scheduled to be finished by 2019.

Fast Internet connections enable lower latency in streaming video, loading web pages and downloading files. India lags behind in this regard, something which has been even acknowledged by Google, which owns video streaming site YouTube. For India, Google has added an offline viewing mode in YouTube as the reach and speed of connectivity is limited in the country.

Android 5.0 Lollipop OS: 10 key features of Google’s latest mobile OS

 

Android L is finally here – and it’s not Key Lime Pie or Licorice. Google has named it “Lollipop”, keeping up with it’s dessert-name trend. The new Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system has landed first on the latest Nexus devices – Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Nexus Player.
Android chief Sundar Pichai had earlier said this is the largest and most ambitious release on Android to date. Here are best features announced in the latest Android OS:

1. Pick up where you left off: Similar to Continuity in iOS 8, Lollipop lets you pick up where you left off, so the songs, photos, apps, and even recent searches from one of your Android devices can be immediately accessed across devices.

2. Multiple device compatibility: Lollipop will support devices with different screen sizes including wearables such as smartwatches, TVs and cars. According to Google, it is designed to be flexible, so that it can work on all your devices and customised for your needs.

3. Material Design: In order to maintain a consistent design experience across all Android devices, Lollipop uses the Material Design interface across devices it runs on.With Material Design, elements can dynamically shrink and expand, there’s more white space between elements, and gives a 3D appearance overall. While we are yet to try it out ourselves, Google claims that the new design is more intuitive and transitions between tasks are more fluid.

4. Updated camera: Lollipop makes it easier to support features like burst mode and fine settings tuning. You’ll be able to capture full resolution frames around 30fps, and shoot in raw formats like YUV and Bayer RAW. There’s also support for UHD 4K video playback, tunneled video for high quality video playback on Android TV and improved streaming. Lollipop adds professional features to control settings for the sensor, lens and flash per individual frame.

5. Battery settings: There’s a new battery-saver feature that extends the life of your device by up to 90 minutes—helpful if you’re far from a power outlet. It’s also easier to manage your power usage. The OS adds a feature which gives the estimated time left before you need to charge and, when it’s charging, it tells you approximately how much time it will need to charge before it’s ready to go.

6. Improved security: Share your device securely with guest user mode, create multiple user accounts to enable friends to log in on your device. In either case, no one will be able to access your private files. There’s Android Smart Lock to secure your phone or tablet by pairing it with a trusted device like your wearable or even your car. Google has enforced the SELinux security module for all apps to give better protection against vulnerabilities and malware.

7. Updated notifications screen: You can now view and respond to messages directly from your lock screen, or hide notifications for sensitive content. Turning on Priority mode through your device’s volume button will allow only certain people and notifications get through.You can also choose to avoid calls from interrupting the game you are playing or the movie you are watching.

8. New Quick Settings: The updated Quick Settings on the notification screen has new handy controls such as flashlight, hotspot, screen rotation and cast screen controls. While these settings were not on older stock-Android devices, they may already be present on other customised Android devices. Similarly, you can manually adjust the brightness for certain conditions, while adaptive brightness will kick in based on ambient lighting.

9. Smoother experience: Google uses a new runtime on Android (called ART), which claims to improve app performance, battery life and responsiveness. Google claims that the new OS improves Android’s performance by four times. It compacts background apps and services so you can do more at once. There’s also support for 64-bit chips now.

10 Tap and Go: Tap and Go for NFC devices lets you set up your new Android phone or tablet instantly by simply tapping it to your old one. Whenever you get a new Android phone or tablet, you can sync your apps from Google Play automatically from any of your old Android devices.
As with all OS updates, there are minor improvements on the camera, video and audio experience, along with better multitasking, performance and battery life. Overall, Lollipop will provide a smoother user experience, more usable apps and services and help you manage bloatware. Google has also announced it will re-enable microSD card writing support and segmentation of firmware for older devices.

Full Mobile Portability from next year

Mobile phone users will soon beable to change their telecom operators and retain their numbers even if they are relocating to areas outside the service providers' operations.

At present, mobile subscribers have restricted facility of changing their telcos while retaining their number within same service area using mobile number portability (MNP). For example, a subscriber in Delhi NCR can switch operator within Delhi NCR only.

The Department of Telecom has set a target date of March 31, 2015 to implement the full mobile number portability (MNP), an official source said.

"The Telecom Commission has accepted TRAI's recommendations on full MNP," the source said.

The panel decision will now be placed before Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for the final approval.

Under the full MNP, for instance, a subscriber in Delhi
NCR will be able to switch to a telecom network in Tamil Nadu or in any of the state or place where he is relocating himself/herself while retaining the same number.

As per the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), about 13 crore people have requested for MNP facility as on August 31.

TRAI in its recommendation on full MNP had suggested to give telecom operators six-month time to make necessary changes in their network from the date the proposal is cleared. The source said that DoT will make efforts to get it expeditiously done in about five-month time.

source : hindustantimes.com

Google makes Android Lollipop official, details Nexus 6 phone and Nexus 9 tablet

 Is it even fun unwrapping your presents on Christmas day when you already know what they are? Of course it is! Today, Google let us unwrap the Nexus 6 phone, Nexus 9 tablet, and the official name for Android 5.0. There are no surprises, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting. 

Android Lollipop

Android 5.0, operating under the moniker “Android L” since Google I/O, will be called Android Lollipop. It’s Android’s biggest release yet, with more than 5,000 new APIs for developers, new battery-saving features, better multitasking, and a brand new visual language called “Material Design.”
Google has been talking about the new features of Android Lollipop since its big summer developer conference, and didn’t share any major new features today. Instead, it focused on a marketing effort to promote the way Android gives customers lots of choice and individuality, while maintaining compatibility and core features. The tagline—“Be together. not the same”—was introduced with an aggressively hopeful YouTube video.

The Nexus 6 phone

It wouldn’t be a new version of Android without a corresponding new Nexus phone. Numerous leaks have spilled all the details of the Nexus 6 over the last few months, and the official announcement leaves no surprises: The Nexus 6 is essentially a giant 6-inch version of the new Moto X.
It features a 5.96-inch Quad HD display, so that’s 2560x1440, or 493 pixels-per-inch. Inside you’ll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor running at 2.7GHz, which is top-of-the-line for Android phones this fall. 

 


Other features are borrowed from the Moto X, including a 13-megapixel f/2.0 rear camera with “ring flash,” a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and dual front-facing speakers. Here’s hoping that they’re both active for stereo playback, unlike the Moto X, where the topmost speaker is only used for phone calls.
Connectivity is robust, as with many Nexus phones. Here in the U.S. you get GSM at 850/900/1800/1900MHz, CDMA band classes 0/1/10, WCDMA bands 1/2/4/5/8, and LTE bands 2/3/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/26/29/41. In other words, it should work on every carrier and all over the world. It’s also packing 802.11ac Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO antenna, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, and NFC. 
Perhaps most impressive is the whopping big 3220mAh battery, which should give the phone lots of life. Google claims up to 10 hours of internet use with LTE, 24 hours of talk time, and 10 hours of video playback. Of note, it lists two figures for standby time: 330 hours with Ambient Display off, and 250 hours with Ambient Display on. Ambient Display is the nifty Motorola notification pulsing feature from the Moto X, and it appears to be included in the Nexus 6 as well. The phone will support Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0, just like the Moto X, so 15 minutes of charging that nearly-dead battery will get you 6 hours of use.
The phone will be available in 32GB and 64GB variants, and, interestingly, the spec sheet does not list a micro SD card slot.




The Nexus 6 will go on sale in late October. Logos on the Google site suggest the phone will be available at Google Play, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular, and Best Buy. Oh, and for once, it will be carried by Verizon.
These specs put it on par with the very best Android phones on the market, but it looks like it will be priced up with them, too. The unlocked Nexus 6 is reported to cost about $650, but carriers will offer subsidized pricing, too.

The Nexus 9 tablet

The Nexus 9 is a device we knew was coming, but didn’t have as much solid pre-release information about. It’s an 8.9-inch tablet with a 4:3 aspect ratio and QXGA resolution. That’s 2048x1536, or 288 pixels per inch (not bad for a big tablet). 




It is the first mass-market device to feature the 64-bit dual-core variant of Nvidia’s Tegra K1 processor. This thing should be crazy fast. I was mightily impressed by the GPU’s performance in my review of the Shield Tablet, and this version should have even better CPU performance.
The Nexus 9 features an 8-megapixel rear camera and 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera, a 6700mAh battery, and will come in both Wi-Fi and LTE variants. 
The design is interesting. At 7.95mm thick, it’s a little thicker than an iPad Air, but it’s not quite as tall or wide. It even weighs a little less than Apple’s most popular tablet, at 425 grams for the Wi-Fi version. 




The biggest surprise is the optional official keyboard cover. Google really wants to make Android tablets into powerful workhorses for everyday computing use.
Pre-orders for the Nexus 9 tablet begin on October 17, and it will be sold in stores starting November 3. Official pricing has not been released, but the latest rumors suggest it will carry a premium tablet price: $400 for the entry-level 16GB, Wi-Fi model. Adding LTE or bumping the storage to 32GB will cost you more.









 

17,000 Candidates Qualified Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination

UPSC declared the results of Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination 2014 on 14 October 2014. This year a total of 16,933 candidates out of 4,52,334 have succeeded the examination and are selected to appear for the main examination which is going to be held on 14 December 2014.

The prelims examination was conducted on 24 August 2014. The examination is conducted to select the country’s top bureaucracy. According to reports, this year a rise of 40% in the number of students has been witnessed as compared to last year. Last year about 3,24,279 students appeared for the examination.

This time the results for the examination are declared early so that students can get some more time to prepare well for the main examination.

The selected candidates have to fill up the detailed application form (DAF) available on the commission’s website from 18 October 2014 to 11 November 2014.

Xiaomi President To Jony Ive: Try Our Phones Before You Accuse Us Of Theft

The president of smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has hit back at Apple design head Jony Ive after he accused the Chinese company of stealing his designs.

Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment summit, Ive was asked what he thought about Xiaomi. The Chinese smartphone maker has often been accused of copying Apple's latest smartphones and selling cheaper versions of them in China. Ive had this to say about his imitators:

I don't see it as flattery. I see it as theft. I have to be honest. The last thing I think is 'Oh, that is flattering ... all those weekends I could've been home with my family' ... I think it's theft and it's lazy. I don't think it's OK at all.

Now, Xiaomi President Lin Bin has hit back at Ive's accusations, defending his company's products. In a statement to the state-run China News Service, reported by The Register, Lin Bin addressed Ive directly:

Xiaomi is a very open company, which would never force anyone to use its products. However, one can only judge Xiaomi's gadgets after he or she has used them. I'm very willing to give a Xiaomi cell phone to him as a present, and I look forward to hearing his remarks after he uses it.

But that wasn't the only reaction from Xiaomi to Ive's comments. Cult of Mac reports that the company's VP for international markets, Hugo Barra, also responded to the accusation in an interview with the Economic Times:

If you look at the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 has been using the design language that has been around for a while. The iPhone 6 is using design language that HTC has had for 5 years. You cannot claim full ownership of any kind of design languages in our industry.

source : businessinsider.in

credits : James Cook

Microsoft announces Diwali cashback offers on Lumia range

Diwali becomes sweeter with Lumia, or at least Microsoft Mobile Devices hopes so as it announced cashback schemes on two of its mobile devices -Nokia Lumia 530 dual SIM model, Nokia Lumia 630 and the dual SIM variant of the Lumia 630. Since the offer is Diwali themed it's on till the 23rd of October or till stocks last.
On the Nokia Lumia 530 dual SIM, the manufacturer is offering an assured cashback of Rs.1,001 which brings the price of the device down to Rs.6,198. The Nokia Lumia 630 and its dual SIM sibling have a cashback offer of Rs.1,501 bringing the prices of these devices to Rs.8,498 and Rs.9,498 respectively.
While the offer somewhat brings the official selling price from Microsoft a bit closer to what these devices are being offered for on e-commerce websites, the larger benefit of the offer for the consumer is that these offers will also be valid at offline Nokia Priority Dealer and Nokia Priority Partner outlets in the country.
Sweetening the pot further, Microsoft has also announced that 1,050 buyers will be chosen in a lucky draw for 100 per cent cashback on the purchase of the following devices: Lumia 730, Lumia 830, Lumia 930, Lumia 925, Lumia 1020, Lumia 1320, and Lumia 1520.
Participation in the lucky draw rests on submission of proof of purchase along with IMEI number and contact details at Nokia Priority Partner or Dealer outlets.
As a special deal for Tamil Nadu, Microsoft has packed 98 of the 100 per cent cash back scratch cards inside device packaging.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/microsoft-announces-diwali-cash-back-offers/1/395227.html

1,00,000 units of Xiaomi Redmi 1S to be available on October 14

If you have missed out on registering or pre-ordering the Xiaomi Redmi 1S, here’s another chance to grab one! 

Flipkart has once again opened registrations for Xiaomi’s most demanded budget handset, Redmi 1S, priced at Rs 5,999. Around 1,00,000 units of Redmi 1S will be available for sale on Flipkart on October 14.

Around 3,00,000 people have already registered on Flipkart. The online shopping website notifies that the ones who missed out on buying the smartphone on September 30 sale, need to re-register.

Xiaomi Redmi 1S has been in demand for quite a long time, which is why Flipkart gave away 1,50,000 units even for unregistered customers on October 6. Additionally, Xiaomi also surprised its fans by adding the handset to their shopping carT.

Flipkart Revenges Amazon!!

This week has seen it all. First Flipkart starting the proceedings for the week by dishing out the Big Billion Day sale, making big moolah, getting trolled by competitors and facing barrage from upset buyers. Round two of this episode, sees Amazon facing backlash from Flipkart which hardly comes as a surprise to anyone.


Anyone managing to sell products with hefty discounts (ranging up to 50% in some cases) are sure to attract negative and positive criticism. Making things a bit more interesting, Snapdeal and Amazon not-so-quietly managed to make a name for themselves amidst the confusion that was a constant feature of the Big Billion day sale on October 6.

Flipkart VS Amazon

Amazon went to the extent of buying the bigbillionday.in to troll Flipkart's misery in open sight and now, we have Flipkart paying back the favour to the US-based retailer with its purchase of diwalidhamaka.co.in domain that directly takes you to the Flipkart homepage. On the hindsight, Flipkart's deals were much more appealing to consumers with regards to their pricing, in comparison to the deals that were being offered by Amazon today.

At the end of the day, it's hard to comment on who came out as big winners but nevertheless, Flipkart managed to open up sales avenues for the e-commerce fraternity that could become a common sight in the near future.There are lessons to be learnt ( a lot of them) and now we'll have to wait for the next move to happen from these respective online shopping sites.

Press Club of India website hacked

Cyber hackers apparently from Pakistan have hacked the website of Press Club of India (PCI) and posted anti-India messages on its page.
"Last week the website was hacked but it was showing no message. It was completely blank. Today, it was again hacked and anti-India messages were posted on the website. We have filed a police complaint in the matter," PCI General Secretary Nadeem Ahmad Kazmi told PTI.

The hacker group called themselves "Team Cyber Warriors" and posted Pakistani flag on their logo.
The cyber criminals posted anti-India message and threatened to target Indian government websites and take down the country's Internet with the help of "Muslim Hackers".
The hacking of the PCI website apparently seems in retaliation to the reported hacking of websites in Pakistan from India ridiculing Pakistan People's Party politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's comment to take back Kashmir from India.

Mark @India’s first minorities’ cyber village

Mark Zuckerberg on Friday visited Chandauli, the country’s first minorities’ cyber village, 20 km from Alwar, and said he wanted to connect all Indians through the Internet.
Zuckerberg, who reached the village around noon, asked the children few questions about the Net and how much time they spent on its usage.


The cyber centre was inaugurated by the then central minister for minority affairs, K Rahman Khan, on February 19, 2014. Twenty-five laptops were installed for training purposes at the Centre, where people between the age group of 15 and 59, were invited to explore the Internet. Till date, over 1,400 people have learnt to use the Net against the targetted 2,500 per year.

The centre is run by the Digital Empowerment Foundation under the public private partnership model funded by the government

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi share Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for risking their lives to fight for children's rights. The decision made Malala, a 17-year-old student and education activist, the youngest-ever Nobel winner.

The news set off celebrations on the streets of Mingora, the main town in Pakistan's volatile Swat valley, with residents greeting each other and distributing sweets. At the town's Khushal Public School, which is owned by Malala's father, students danced in celebration Friday, jumping up and down.

When she was a student there, Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman two years ago for insisting that girls as well as boys have the right to an education. Surviving several operations with the help of British medical care, she continued both her activism and her studies.

Is this 15-year-old Australian the next Mark Zuckerberg?

Ben Pasternak was so bored one day during science class he decided to design an iPhone game.
Careful to not let his teacher see what he was doing on his laptop, he enlisted the help of his whiz-coder friend Austin Valleskey,15, who lives in Chicago, to build a game app in a matter of hours.
Much to the boys' surprise, Impossible Rush has become a big hit on the App Store both in Australia and overseas.

It peaked at number 7 in Sweden, 16 in the US and 18 in Australia, above apps such as  Vine, Google, Gmail and Twitter, and has clocked up 300,000 downloads in the six weeks since it launched.

Like other popular games such as Flappy Bird or Tetris, Impossible Rush is a minimalist affair: the player simply taps a wheel to match colours against balls which fall faster and faster.
For Ben, a year nine student at Reddam House's Woollahra campus in eastern Sydney, the game's success is vindication that his dream of becoming the next big tech entrepreneur is achievable.

"Everyone I tell has the attitude that there are a million-plus apps out there, [they say] 'what are the chances of your app working out? You're just a 15-year-old kid'," Ben told Fairfax Media.

The boys weren't even planning to release the app, but Austin told Fairfax Media that another friend, Carlos Fajardo from New York City, gave them $US200 to take it off their hands and invest in marketing it - to great success. Mr Fajardo is listed as the app developer on the App Store, while the boys are listed as creators.
Ben said Mr Fajardo made $1500 from paid advertisements within the game in one day, but says he isn't bothered that he hasn't seen any of the money himself. His mother, Anna, said he boys did the app as an adventure and from Ben's perspective it wasn't about money on this occasion.
His greater goal is to create the number one app in the world. After that he wants to start something, not just toil for a big tech company like Apple or Google where some of his newly made contacts work.
Since February, he has been working on another app called One, to be launched by year's end. It puts a person's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds all in one place.
Anna said she and husband Mark had invested "thousands" of dollars into the project, although she described it as "relatively inexpensive".
Mrs Pasternak said her son's passion for technology began around the age of eight, when he became "obsessed" with Club Penguin, a social gaming site now owned by Disney. He soon turned his attention to Apple products.
"He's a devotee – he used to queue up all night to get the latest product," she said.
At 14, Ben was the first customer in the world to buy the iPad Air, filming the event with the help of a friend to post on his own YouTube channel, where he reviews Apple products.
He quickly established himself as a social media darling, and now has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram, and more than 40,000 on Facebook.
But it was a family trip to Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, California, in January that spurred Ben beyond the world of selfies and into something far more ambitious.
While he wasn't allowed to tour the building, just visiting the on-campus Apple store was enough to inspire Ben to start making his own apps.
Mrs Pasternak said Ben's father Mark gave him the idea for One, but the work has been all his.
"I don't think Mark expected him to just take off with it like that," she said. "He hasn't dropped the ball since."
While Mrs Pasternak described her son as "busy" and "obsessive", she likened it to having a child prodigy in the house, such as a gifted musician.
"He's channelling it in such a creative and beautiful way," she said. "It could be just gaming – so many kids his age just sit at home and play games, but he's not interested in that. He's interested in creating new technology."
The tech obsession isn't genetic. Mrs Pasternak is a trained psychologist. Mark, however, is an architect - which might explain Ben's love for design.
Ben's parents are insisting he finishes school, and they want him to get a degree. His mum is suggesting a gap year to test-drive his entrepreneurial ambitions first.
"We won't count our apps before they hatch," she said.
Reddam House principal Dave Pitcairn said Ben had proven his detractors wrong with the success of Impossible Rush, and had "absolutely no doubt" the teenager was headed for great things.
"He's awfully intelligent," Mr Pitcairn said.
Mr Pitcairn said Ben was "very popular" and "charming" at school, and that his people skills were "going to be phenomenal" out in the professional world.
"He's got that twinkle in his eye and a naughtiness about him that is both endearing and frustrating," Mr Pitcairn said.
That much is plain: Mrs Pasternak said she thought her son was out at the beach with friends during this week's Labour Day holiday - in fact, he was busy spruiking his successes to Fairfax Media.
"From our side [Reddam House], we wish him all the best and we'll support him through this," Mr Pitcairn said. "But he must make sure his school work is also up to speed!"

Watch trailer: Saif Ali Khan, Govinda in Happy Ending

If one were to purely go by first impressions, Saif Ali Khan and Govinda's forthcoming film Happy Ending promises to be a fresh, fun and non-traditional take on romance as we know in Bollywood.

The tagline of the film, which releases on November 28, says it all: 'break the rules while playing by the rules,' it says. A romantic comedy, Happy Ending also stars Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin, Ileana D'Cruz and Preity Zinta.

From the first trailer of the film, released on Thursday, we know that Govinda plays a struggling filmmaker looking for ways to his business from single screen to multiplexes. His solution? Approach an author (Saif Ali Khan) and ask him to write two parts for his films -- "Meet parents and Meet f****rs"!

Happy Ending promises to be a fun-filled ride. Sample some of the dialogues:

Saif: Fame, ladkiyaan, paisa, sab kuch toh hai mere paas. To ab kaam karne ki kya zarurat hai?

Govinda: Public khush honi chahiye yaar, apni akal ke loop me mat phans.

Talking about the film, Saif said in an earlier interview, "Happy Ending is a romantic comedy. She (Kareena Kapoor) has done a scene in the film, which is against (her) type. It's
something you guys must not have expected, you all will be surprised."


Watch trailer:

Elaborating on his role in the film, he added, "There is a lot of talking in Happy Ending. Even that's too difficult! You need control over that... I think I prefer different kind of roles and I must say I love my role in Happy Ending."

The film is directed by Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, who earlier gave us films like Go Goa Gone, Tusshar Kapoor-starrer Shor In The City and 99 (which featured Soha Ali Khan and Boman Irani).

SOURCE: http://www.hindustantimes.com/

When Modi meets Zuckerberg: Will they 'like' and 'poke' each other, jokes Twitter

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in India for two days and will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow. During the first day of his internet.org summit he spoke about making Internet affordable to all and being accessible even in the remotest of places. Zuckerberg called for an internet service equivalent to 911, access to basic health, education services. Modi and Zuckerberg are scheduled to discuss the collaboration between Facebook and the government for offering better services to the public.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. AP

Indians on Twitter had interesting reactions as to how the meeting between the tech-savvy and social media-loving Modi and the creator of Facebook would be:

Mark Zuckerberg's coming to India. I can bet Mr. Narendra Modi will tell him the "We play with a mouse, not snakes" story at least twice.-@AksharPathak


Modi is so influential that Mark Zuckerberg is flying in personally to give him a friendship request.-@madmanweb


Did Mark Zuckerberg like Modi for PM page yet? #ZuckerbergInIndia-@chaddi_chikka

SOURCE: http://www.firstpost.com/

Apple launching iPhone 6 in India for Rs 53,500, 6 Plus for Rs 62,500

Following the announcement related to availability of the new iPhone models, Apple's sales partners have also announced the pricing details for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

The 16GB version of Apple iPhone 6 will be available at Rs 53,500, while the 64GB version is priced at Rs 62,500. The 128GB version of the phone will sell for Rs 71,500.

The 16GB version of Apple iPhone 6 Plus will be available at Rs 62,500, while the 64GB version is priced at Rs 71,500. The 128GB version of the phone will sell for Rs 80,500.

Apple aims to sell 200 million iPhone 6, 6 Plus by Q1 2015: Report

Just three days after its launch, Apple had announced that it sold over 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units, which was a new record for the world' second-largest smartphone manufacturer. But this seems like a small number compared to the sales figure Apple is estimating from the new models.

According to a report by Taiwanese website Digitimes, Apple has asked its hardware partners to prepare 200-250 million units chips for the new devices. Of this figure, 30-40 million are supposedly reserved for the production of Apple Watch, which will be launched early next year. Therefore, the remaining chips are expected to be used in production of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

This is a huge number even for Apple as it announced in March 2014 that total iPhone sales (since the launch of the first iPhone in 2007) had crossed 500 million. According to Forbes, Apple has already sold as many as 20 million iPhones till now.

Apple recently announced the official prices of its smartphones for the Indian markets - iPhone 6 will be available at starting price of Rs 53,500, while the base variant of iPhone 6 Plus will cost Rs 62,500. Pre-orders for the two models start in India on October 7, while they will hit the market on October 17.

With both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple is entering the market of big screen smartphone for the first time, which is said to be the reason for the shoot up in the demand of the new models.

'Blood Moon' Photos: Total Lunar Eclipse Thrills Skywatchers

The full moon took on a spooky red hue in a pre-dawn total lunar eclipse Wednesday (Oct. 8) to the delight of skywatchers who managed to snap stunning photos of the "blood moon."

The total lunar eclipse of Oct. 8 was visible to observers in North America, western South America, parts of East Asia, Australia and other parts of the Pacific, weather permitting. The  lunar eclipse is also the second iof four consecutive total eclipses of the moon that make up a unique "tetrad."

During the eclipse, the moon passed into the darkest part of Earth's shadow, which caused the moon to glow with an eerie copper color. This color shift has caused some people to dub the natural satellite a "blood moon" during total lunar eclipses. The moon's temporary color also created an incredible, unique sight to behold for photographers on the ground.



"The moon was a brownish red color," Christina Ryan told Space.com of her view of the eclipse from Elkhart, Indiana. "Very beautiful lunar eclipse. I am happy to have been able to witness it."

Some intrepid observers might have also been able to capture the planet Uranus near the eclipsed full moon as well.
The lunar eclipse reached totality just before dawn for observers on the East Coast of the United States, but well-placed skywatchers on the West Coast may have seen the lunar eclipse rise in a totally dark sky during the wee hours of Oct. 8.
Some astrophotographers in California captured stunning views of the blood moon. Thomas Warloe took an incredible photo of the moon in the middle of totality glowing red in a sky dotted with stars from Berkeley, California.



Photographers from Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii also snapped images of the total lunar eclipse.
"I am lucky to have such a clear night to observe this eclipse!" Jared Kizer told Space.com of his view of the eclipse from Queensland, Australia

If you missed this total lunar eclipse, you might have another chance to see a blood moon rise 2015. The next eclipse in the tetrad series is set to grace the skies in April 2015, with the final in the tetrad occurring in September 2015.
Lunar eclipses occur when the full moon passes through Earth's shadow. Instead of blotting out the moon entirely, the moon turns a rusty color because of the way light from the sun seeps through the planet's shadow.
The color of the moon during a total lunar eclipse is also a good measure of what's happening in Earth's atmosphere at the time. If the moon is a darker shade during the eclipse, it could mean that the atmosphere is polluted from volcanic activity or other events.
This total lunar eclipse is only one in a series of amazing skywatching events happening in October. On Oct. 23, observers in most of North America will have the chance to see a partial solar eclipse. Comet Siding Spring is also set to make a close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, and the Orionid meteor shower is expected to peak overnight from Oct. 21-22.

MIT researchers develop new underwater robot for port security

Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new oval-shaped submersible robot to perform ultrasound scans to search ships for hollow compartments that may conceal illegal imports.
The new underwater robot was designed by researcher Sampriti Bhattacharyya along with advisor, Ford professor of Engineering Harry Asada, and was introduced during the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.
Though designed to check for cracks in nuclear reactor water tanks, the robot has a flattened panel on one side for sliding along an underwater surface, which can be used to inspect a ship for false hulls and propeller shafts.

"If this is cheap enough…why not just have 20 of them doing collaborative inspection? And if it breaks, it's not a big deal."

The small size and unique propulsion mechanism of the robot allows it to hide in clumps of algae or other camouflage and inspect ships at ports without being visible.
Bhattacharyya said: "It's very expensive for port security to use traditional robots for every small boat coming into the port.
"If this is cheap enough, if I can get this out for $600, say, why not just have 20 of them doing collaborative inspection? And if it breaks, it's not a big deal. It's very easy to make."
Half of the robot including the flattened panel is waterproof and houses the electronics, while the other half contains the propulsion system with six pumps to eject water through rubber tubes.
The electronic section holds the control circuitry, a battery, a communications antenna and an inertial measurement unit with three accelerometers and three gyroscopes, to measure the robot's motion in any direction.
The rechargeable lithium batteries used in the prototype have a life of 40 minutes allows it to travel between half a metre and one metre per second while pressed against a surface, which provides enough time to check the craft before being recharged.
However, the new prototype has wirelessly rechargeable batteries and modifications to the propulsion system to increase its operation time to 100 minutes on a single charge.
The National Science Foundation has funded this research.
A screen shot from an animated video shows how the robot could be used to perform ultrasound scans. Photo: courtesy of researchers / Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Please correct a common mistake

Please correct a common mistake friends 1Kbps is not 1KBps.

There's a small difference of 'b' which makes a huge difference in MBps and Mbps.

None the less many people do confuse in these terms and do get happy when they hear that their internet speed is 1Mbps but actually its 128KBps and complain after wards 'That my speed is 1Mbps but still it doesn't download a 4MB file in 4 secs.

Kbps means Kilo'bits' per second not Kilo'bytes' per second.

Since Bytes is a huge amount in relation to networking so most network operators give the data transfer in Kilo'bits' not Kilo'bytes' while all the computer files exists in bytes.

To convert bits to bytes divide that data by 8 (since 1byte = 8bits). So next time when you buy a modem or get a connection do check the 'b' and find out its real speed.

Mahmoud Abbas Accuses Israel of 'War of Genocide' on Palestinian People in UN Speech

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of committing a "war of genocide" on the Palestinian people in a controversial United Nations speech.
"In the name of Palestine, I affirm here today, we will not forget or forgive, or allow war criminals to escape unpunished," he said.
"Israel has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people.
"The war against Gaza was a series of war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world. A life of Palestinian is as precious as that of any other.
"Even as we watched the escalating Israeli violations, we exercised unimaginable self-restraint, in order to give US efforts a chance.
Abbas did not go as far as to confirm that he will pursue war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) but he said he would attempt to secure a UN resolution which would set a deadline for Israel to withdraw from the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
In other aspects of his speech, he condemned Israel's attempts to "undermine" peace negotiations between the two parties.
"As usual the Israeli government did not miss the opportunity to undermine the chance for peace. Throughout the negotiations, settlement construction, killing & arrest campaigns in the West Bank continued unabated."
The Palestinian leader continued to criticise the Israeli occupation and spoke of a future independent Palestinian state.
"Israel has refused to end its occupation of the State of Palestine since 1967, but rather seeks its continuation and entrenchment. The future proposed by the Israeli government for the Palestinian people is at best isolated ghettos for Palestinians without sovereignty."
"The occupation wants to destroy the chance for the realisation of the Palestinian existence in an independent State.
"There's no value in negotiations for which agreed objective isn't ending the Israeli occupation & achieving independence of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital on the entire Palestinian Territory occupied in the 1967 war. And, there is no value in negotiations which are not linked to a firm timetable for the implementation of this goal.
"The hour of independence for the people of Palestine has arrived," he concluded.
He also mentioned the threat of Isis (now known as the Islamic State) and the death of Mohammed Abu Khdeir in Jerusalem before receiving a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

Digital India: BSNL working on public Wi-FI hotspots, m-wallet under

With a vision to promote e-governance and provide better connectivity to India, state run BSNL has announced plans to focus on establishing Wi-Fi Hotspots and starting mobile wallet schemes under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project.

The telecommunications entity is looking to cash in on the wide range of revenue generating possibilities that come with Digital India along with providing convenience and connectivity to citizens.

"There are 3-4 areas where we are contributing for Digital India programme, like national optic fibre network (NOFN), providing Wi-Fi hotspots at commercial places, mobile wallet service under the Jan Dhan yojna and delivering m-governance services like digital mandi, kisan seva among others," Anupam Shrivastava, BSNL Board Director(Consumer Mobility) told PTI.

Through NOFN the government plans to  provide high speed  internet connectivity to all 250,000 gram panchayats in India and promote m-governance through this measure.

BSNL is also working on a setting up Wi-Fi Hotspots in the Varansi Ghat area and the famed Bhul Bhulaiya (labyrinth) in Lucknow at the Bara Imambara complex. Work has already begun in these areas and fiber optic cables have started being laid in these places.

Along with these initial spots, there are plans to set up Wi-Fi hotspots in public places of significant traffic like universities, malls and other historical sites.

In connection to the Varanasi Ghat project, Srivastav said that, "We are working on the banking project, wherein we will provide m-wallet services as part of Jan Dhan Yojna. We are also undertaking m-governance services at national and state-level like kisan seva, mid day meal, passport, digital mandi among others wherein people can get information through SMS,".

Facebook partnering with Stripe for 'buy' button in social network

 

Facebook Inc. has partnered with online payments startup Stripe Inc. to develop a “Buy” button that allows customers to buy items while in the social network, reported Re/code Thursday.

The partnership follows Facebook’s appointment of David Marcus, PayPal’s ex-president, who now heads the social network’s messaging products.

The button is designed to let users buy goods and services that appear in ads or posts on Facebook, according to Re/code. Stripe’s technology has reportedly been supporting the button.

Stripe is Facebook’s only payments partner for the prototype button, said spokespersons with the companies in statements to Re/code Thursday.

Facebook has partnered on separate projects with other payment processors, including PayPal’s Braintree.

Customised Android tablets in India beginning @Rs5k

Customised Android tablets in India beginning @Rs5k. the tabs are optimized for different section of population

This is going to look like enticing for many people in the country. A tech company has come out with a new idea of customized tablet for different group of people. So now if you go to the company and ask for a tablet you will be asked if you want it for kids, for senior citizens or for executives. There is another category too, gaming. Gaming fans are going to get the sort of specs that they need to play games seamlessly.
So they have come with the idea that one thing doesn’t really suit every segment and everyone must have something different than the others. The customization is done both in hardware and software and products are optimized for the group which is intended to use the product. The new line of tablets are being launched in the market by ‘Pinig Tabs’ and these tablets will be powered by Google’s Android operating system. The handsets will be priced from Rs 5000 to Rs 12000 depending on the specs and features.


The Indian company’s co-founder Piyush Nigam while talking about the idea says, “We are passionate about technology and want to make it easy to use for everybody. You shouldn’t have to be tech-savvy to enjoy all the benefits of technology. While your 8-month old child can use the Kids Tab for learning numbers and rhymes, your 70-year old dad can use the Senior Tab to watch his grandchildren learn their first words”

.

While many details about the tabs are yet to come out, a company official says, “Moreover, we are in the process of contacting schools for our Kids Tab…We have big plans for this year’s festive season. We are in talks with leading e-commerce sites for exclusive associations for Diwali and beyond. With social media gaining popularity, we also plan to issue coupon codes for our tablets…Apart from discounts on the tablets, we would be offering festive packs that include accessories that a user may need”. It is yet to be seen if people warm up to the idea or not.

Asian Games opens with spectacular show at Incheon

 

Pop sensation Psy was the star attraction as a dazzling opening ceremony, showcasing the glorious past and modern-day South Korea launched the 17th Asian Games here on Friday.
The Games were declared open by South Korean President Park Geun-Hye with the words "I declare open the 17th Asian Games," before actor Lee Young-ae lit up the flame resembling a fountain of cascading water.
As Lee lighted the cauldron, dazzling fireworks lit up the sky.
The competing teams marched into the stadium in the final act of the evening. The Indian athletes trooped in after Iran with hockey skipper Sardar Singh leading out the smartly-dressed contingent.
While the male members wore black blazers, the women athletes were dressed in blue sarees. The smiling athletes walked in waving the tri-colour. India have sent nearly 700-strong contingent for the event that will take part in 28 disciplines.
The overriding theme of the opening was the unity of Asia and consequently the cultural show
comprised four parts. As is the custom the ceremony was divided into the informal and formal parts.

The event began with a welcoming performance, lasting close to 80 minutes, to greet the spectators at the 60,000-capacity stadium that was filled to the brim.
The session was divided into three parts, "Incheon, the magnet of dreams," "Incheon, where all of us become friends," and "Tomorrow, dreamed by all of us."

A display of Korea's traditional drums and cymbal-type instruments before emcees Kim Sung-ju and Youn Soo-young came on stage.
Then, a cheering team formed by young children performed to a remix of songs from past sports events held in Korea, including the theme song of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and the 2002 FIFA World Cup.
The second part of the opening ceremony consisted of two themed songs "New Asia, a Song of Hope" and "Incheon".
Then "Incheon, a place for one Asia" expressed the Games hosting city as a bridge to unite Asia as one family and open the future of the continent.
Two figures related to Incheon appeared on stage- Biryu, a legendary founding father of an ancient kingdom whose territory covered the Incheon area, and Sim Cheong, a girl in an ancient novel, who dived into the sea as a sacrifice for fishermen who promised to give her blind father a huge amount of rice instead.
On the final stage of "Incheon, a place for one Asia," a ship returned to Incheon with Korean opera singer, Ahn Sook-sun, singing "One Asia."
The ship carried the hoop girl, actor Kim Soo-hyun and people from 45 nations. They were welcomed by actor Jang Dong-gun and people of Incheon. Executive director Im Kwon-taek and artistic director Jang Jin orchestrated all performances.
Executive director Im Kwon-taek and artistic director Jang Jin orchestrated all the performances.
After the Games were formally declared open the OCA flag was brought in by eight top former Korean sports heroes and ceremoniously raised.
The host country's national anthem was sung to signal the commencement of the formal part of the programme.
The teams had been restricted to 130 members for the march past.

  As was expected the host country's contingent, aiming to finish at least second overall in the medals tally behind juggernaut China, was given the loudest cheer of the entire evening.
In his welcome speech Kim Young-soo, the president of the Incheon Asian Games Organising Committee, described Incheon as not only his birthplace, but also as "a dynamic city of communication and interaction; the venue for convergence and exchange, home to various ethnicities, cultures, the latest scientific technologies and traditions."
He also said that the current Asian Games will be "a grand festival for peace and harmony, to discard all discrimination, prejudice, suppression and conflicts; and to ensure an Asia of mutual understanding and prosperity."
"The 17th Asian Games has been prepared not as a festival for just few nations, but as a magnificent festival for all Asians to celebrate as one," he added.
The Games torch, in a departure from tradition lit on August 9 at New Delhi's Dhyan Chand National Stadium which was the venue of the inaugural Asian Games in 1951, was then ceremoniously brought into the stadium by a relay squad of runners before the cauldron was lit in spectacular fashion by Korean actor Lee Young-ae to thunderous roars from the crowd.
Traditionally, the flame of Asian Games had always been lit in the Games hosting nation. But to infuse a sense of tradition and honour to the history of Asian Games, the flame for the 17th Games here was lit up in an overseas nation for the first time to lay the foundation for the flame of the Asian Games to be continuously lit up in the Dhyan Chand National Stadium from now on.
Through the relay from New Delhi, the hosting city for the first Asian Games and through China, the flame arrived at Incheon Port through sea route on August 12th.
It all ended in a riot of colour and foot-tapping Gangnam style music and dance with the assembled athletes in the centre of the field joining in.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/asian-games-opening-ceremony-incheon-2014-south-korea/1/383931.html

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/asian-games-opening-ceremony-incheon-2014-south-korea/1/383931.html

Microsoft announces 'Windows 9' event in San Francisco on September 30th

Microsoft is preparing to detail its next major version of Windows. We had been expecting the company to hold a press event later this month, and now it’s official. Microsoft will hold a "Windows event" in San Francisco on September 30th. The software maker started emailing out invites to the event today, and Joe Belfiore and Terry Myerson will be leading a discussion around the future of Windows. The event will focus on enterprise and power users of Windows.

Windows Technical Preview expected soon

Microsoft is expected to deliver a "Windows Technical Preview" at the event or soon after so that developers and enterprise customers can evaluate a number of changes the company is making. Screenshots and videos of the Windows Technical Preview have leaked over the past week, revealing the addition of a new Start menu, a virtual desktops feature, and a Notification Center. Microsoft also appears to be tweaking its desktop user interface to improve and flatten the traditional icons, alongside some taskbar changes for future Cortana integration and virtual desktops.

Additional changes are expected to be pushed regularly to Windows Technical Preview users until the operating system is complete and ready for release next year. We understand Microsoft is planning more UI changes to the desktop, and a number of those improvements aren’t ready for the preview just yet. We’ll be live from San Francisco on September 30th, so stay tuned for much more information about the future of Windows.

Arjun Kapoor's College Visit Marred by Security Hassles

Actor Arjun Kapoor was all set to visit a college here on September 12 to promote his latest release Finding Fanny, but the plan had to be cancelled due to security hassles.

"I was ready! And then I was requested not to show up at the college event. The trustees told us not to arrive," Arjun had posted on his Twitter page on September 12.

"Bummed out. was looking forward to going back to my college. (I) was told security is a major issue. Hope to be back there someday though," added the son of Bollywood producer Boney Kapoor.

Finding Fanny, directed by Homi Adajania, is an English language Bollywood entertainer that also stars Deepika Padukone, Dimple Kapadia, Pankaj Kapur and Naseeruddin Shah. The film has had a good start to its box office run.

Why the Kashmir Floods Have Been So Deadly

Junaid Rashid finally got his father on the phone today. For the past six days, he had no idea if his family in Srinagar city was safe. Rashid's family and an estimated 600,000 others have been stranded in India's flooded Kashmir region for the past week.
"In my 30 years, I haven't seen a flood like this," says Rashid, a doctor based in Delhi. An estimated 200 people have lost their lives on the Indian side of the contested border (another 250 or more are estimated to have died on the Pakistani side). As rescue operations continue, the number is only going up.
How can there have been so many fatalities in a region long known to be flood-prone?
It happened because of a combination of urban policy and program failures, says Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator at the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People.
The flood zones surrounding the waterways that run through the Kashmir region are not clearly demarcated based on how much flood load the river can carry. Because of this, no clearly defined rules or regulations exist about where it's safe to build. The result is what Thakkar calls "encroachment" of the river bed—residential and government buildings (even hospitals) have been cropping up on vulnerable areas near the Jhelum River. The river "embankments," meant to stop the flooding, only give a "false sense of security," he says, enabling more careless building.
Local water bodies such as lakes have also been neglected, and so their water-holding capacity is negligible. Existing and future hydropower projects are partly responsible. 
"These projects, all of them involve damming of rivers, submergence, deforestation, tunneling of the rivers, blasting, diversion of the rivers," Thakkar says. All of those processes increase the possibility of landslides and flash-floods.
The problem lies in the way government and builders in India have been intervening in traditional urban planning and management practices, says Saleem Beg of the Indian National Trust for Art and Culture Heritage.
In the past, only those who had river-related occupations tended to live by the river and evacuate immediately at the first flood warning. Residential areas, including villages, in this region were traditionally built on higher ground. Natural topography was used to divert flood water, and simple early-warning systems were in place, he says.
Now, those traditional systems have been "given a pass," he says. Lands that once acted as natural flood sinks are now home to growing residential communities, and the waterways have been turned into roads in the name of development.
Villages consisting of flimsy infrastructure have been built on these lowlands, he says. At least 450 of them are now under water.



"We don’t know what they’re doing, what they’re eating, how they’re surviving, Beg says. "People have no idea because everything is televised, the televised thing looks good. The problem is beneath that—where television doesn’t reach."
The government's meteorological department did issue a warning starting September 2, but either people didn't hear about it or they didn't realize how serious it could become. And once floods were in full-force, the rescue efforts were criticized for being late.
There is no concept of disaster management in place, Beg says. The National Disaster Management Authority doesn't function at the local level and faces bureaucratic stalemate at the national level (the authority could not be reached for comment.)
Some progress has been made, though. So far, the government's National Disaster Response Force and the Army has rescued 100,000 people. Rashid's father told him that rescue helicopters have been circling around every hour, relaying supplies. The water has been receding in places and some phone lines are back up.
Beg's own mother was rescued two days into the flood, but he says it was a matter of chance more than anything else.
"Nobody planned it, it just happens that the boat was going by and they caught on to it."

40,000 Xiaomi Redmi 1S Units to Go on Sale via Flipkart on September 16

Xiaomi has announced that 40,000 Redmi 1S units will be going on sale for the third flash sale next week on Flipkart.

The company, also referred to as China's Apple, in a Facebook post on Friday confirmed the number of units, and said, "Want to own 1 of the 40,000 Redmi 1S available next week on Sept 16th? Register now at mi.com/in!"

Xiaomi's new budget smartphone, priced at Rs. 5,999, has been once again breaking sales records with the entire inventory going out of stock within seconds.
Earlier this week, 40,000 Redmi 1S smartphones in the second flash sale went 'out of stock' in 4.5 seconds.

Notably, the first flash sale for Redmi 1S saw 40,000 units going 'out of stock' in just 4.2 seconds.


The Chinese smartphone manufacturer, also known as 'China's Apple', has enjoyed much success in India with its flash sale model in the past, selling over 95,000 Mi 3  smartphones since its launch in late-July.

Flipkart, the exclusive online retailer of Xiaomi handsets in India, had claimed that over 300,000 people had registered for the second flash sale of the Redmi 1S.

The Flipkart page has been lately suggesting consumers to register for each flash sale separately and notes, "Registrations will not be carried over. You need to register again for next sale."
Considering that limited stocks of the Redmi 1S will be available in India, the popular e-commerce giant has revealed that it will limit orders to one phone per registered email ID per sale.

Recently, reports had indicated Xiaomi had discontinued sales of the Mi 3 in India, but when NDTV Gadgets spoke to Manu Jain, Head of Xiaomi India, he clarified that the reports were off the mark
The dual-SIM Xiaomi Redmi 1S features a 4.7-inch 720x1280 pixel IPS-LCD display; Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with MIUI v5; 1.6GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC (MSM8228); Adreno 305 GPU; 1GB of RAM; 8GB of built-in storage; expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB); 8-megapixel rear autofocus camera with flash; 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera, and 2000mAh battery.

Microsoft to phase out 'Nokia' name from its products

Earlier revealed plans of Microsoft phasing out the 'Nokia' name in its mobile products are now backed with a newly leaked internal document that says upcoming Nokia Lumia devices will soon be branded as just 'Lumia'.
According to GeeksOnGadgets, Microsoft is also reportedly dropping the Phone add-on to its Windows Phone branding. Instead of using the Windows Phone logo, the company will reportedly just stick with the Windows logo.


Microsoft acquired Nokia's devices business for more than $7.2 billion in April. Shortly after the takeover, Microsoft renamed the company Microsoft Mobile.
With the deal, Microsoft had planned to use Nokia to continue promoting its Windows Phone mobile operating system and to move forward in its transformation into a devices and services company.
Former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and now the head of Microsoft's devices group had said then that he didn't see the Nokia name sticking around for long at Microsoft.
Elop had said that Nokia as a brand will not be used for long going forward and that work was underway to select the go-forward smartphone brand.

Kieron Pollard named Mumbai Indians captain for Champions League Twenty20

The mighty Trinidad and Tobago all-rounder, Kieron Pollard, known for his explosive batting is the automatic choice to lead the Mumbai Indians in the forthcoming Champions League T20, starting September 13 in Raipur, in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who recently sustained a fractured middle finger during the second ODI against England at Cardiff.
Pollard has been with the Mumbai Indians from IPL Season 3, and has already established a sense of seniority and gained respect among his fellow players. Pollard’s success as the captain having led the Barbados Tridents to title triumph in the recently concluded Caribbean Premier League (CPL) has been very well-appreciated. A towering Trinidadian, Kieron Pollard is one of the hardest hitters of the cricket ball and has produced moments of brilliance for the Mumbai Indians. Pollard played a crucial role in Mumbai Indians’ triumph, during the 2013 IPL Season by smashing 29 sixes, which enabled Mumbai Indians to clinch their maiden IPL Title. Pollard's career in the Mumbai Indians team spans over nearly 96 matches, scoring more than 1,700 runs with over 100 sixes, with more than 63 wickets to his credit. He was also adjudged the Man of the Match in the 2013 IPL final because of his overall brilliant display.
Elated at being appointed as the Captain of the Mumbai Indians team, Kieron Pollard commented, "It is very unfortunate that Rohit will be unable to lead the team, and I take this opportunity to wish him a fast comeback. I truly understand that it is a huge honor and a privilege to captain the vibrant Mumbai Indians side, and thank the team management for bestowing their faith in me. I am aware of the great expectations ahead of us. However, I am confident that together, we will face the challenges, and work towards retaining the glory and the stature of the Mumbai Indians team."
Chief Mentor for Mumbai Indians, Anil Kumble commented, "We will definitely feel Rohit's absence in the team and wish him well. However, I strongly believe, that you can only be as good as the opportunities you get; and I am confident that Kieron with his varied experience and impressive track record, will rise to the occasion, and align the Mumbai Indians for a competitive performance".