Women paid 33% less than male counterparts in IT industry

CHENNAI: The Indian information technology industry is widely regarded to be among the most undiscriminating when it comes to gender. But even then, salary differences between men and women is almost a third.

Industry body Nasscom said this is mainly because fewer women are getting promoted to supervisory roles. Typically, a male employee earns a gross salary of Rs 359.25 an hour while a female worker gets only Rs 254.04. With more number of career breaks in their job history, the negotiating capacity of women in the labour market declines, according to the "Monster Salary Index India IT Sector Report 2014" that was released at the Nasscom HR Summit 2014 in Chennai.

Currently, women make 30% of the total Indian IT sector workforce. "The information is factual but that does not mean that there is a disparity," said Nasscom president R Chandrasekhar. He explained that the IT sector had 65% of women at the entry level, while the mid management and senior management had 27% and 9% of women, respectively.

Chandrasekhar also pointed women find it harder to accumulate tenure due to family obligations. "Women are paid equally when they come back but due to the break their bargaining power is less at times."

Tata Consultancy Services, one of the largest recruiter in the country, said it does not discriminate on the basis of gender. "TCS is an equal opportunity employer. As per the Tata code of conduct, we do not discriminate on the basis of gender, religion, ethnicity and culture," said a TCS spokesperson. Of the 3, 05,000 employees around 32.7% are women at TCS.

Sucharita Palepu, the global head of people policies and practices at Tech Mahindra, said the same about her organisation. "Tech Mahindra's compensation philosophy is to Pay for 3 Ps-Position, Person (based on qualifications, experience and skills) and Performance and this philosophy is applied uniformly to associates from both genders," she said. Meanwhile Nasscom has also indicated that in fiscal 2015 net hiring in the industry would grow by 6% over last year. The industry is expected to add 1,80,000 employees.

"Hiring will be moderately higher and smaller firms will grow faster. The industry 10% more laterals this year," said Sangeetha Gupta, senior vice president of Nasscom.

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Wipro's gives 16% salary raise to its employees

BANGALORE: Wipro has rewarded nearly one in five employees with a 16% salary increase, a move India's third-largest software company believes will help it retain its best-performing employees as overall attrition rates increased during the first quarter of the year.

Starting June 1, the average pay-raise for those working at client locations onsite was 2% while it was an average 8% for the rest. But the top 20% among its 1,47,500 employees were rewarded with twice the average increase.

"One thinking when we did the salary increases this year was to do a 'differentiated salary' increase. So we gave more to high performers," said Saurabh Govil, head of human resources.

"We have done it in the past but this year differentiation has been sharper." Some experts believe that Wipro's decision to reward employees whose skills are in demand, including those with expertise in big data and analytics, could become a more secular trend in an industry that is battling high attrition.

"I believe every company will start looking at attrition rates closely and reward them according to the skill sets it needs," said Ian Marriott, VP at Gartner Research.

Wipro saw an increase in attrition to 17% for the three months which ended in June as against 15.7% during the end of the January-March period. Both Infosys and Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services, too, saw an uptick in attrition for the first quarter ended June, with Infosys reporting attrition rate of close to 20% while at TCS it was 12%.

"Early trends after the salary increases show that there is clearly a dip in attrition for the high performers," Govil told ET in an interview. "And today, it is lower than the company average and this is clearly good news because everyone would want high performers to stay with the company. But then, I should say it's early days and let's wait for a little time."

For IT companies, the first quarter usually results in an increase in quarterly annualised attrition as more employees leave to pursue further education. But many companies are getting jumpy about losing engineers with what it believes are hot skills and hence, trying different measures to retain them. Infosys has decided to do away with the variable pay component for entry-level employees as it believes it will motivate more employees to stay with the company.

On the flip side, rising wages have also cut into operating margins. The pay raises and stock options to some employees at Wipro hit operating margins by 150 basis points during the quarter.

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Terrifying Android Vulnerability That Could Let Hackers Completely Take Over Your Phone

Researchers from Bluebox Labs have discovered a terrifying Android vulnerability that lets malware take over your apps, steal their data, and essentially take full control of your phone, including the financial information you've saved in your Google Wallet.

Here's the basic idea: Every Android app has its own unique identity, and this particular vulnerability allows malware to copy that identity, so that it can impersonate your applications without you knowing. Bluebox researchers aptly nicknamed the vulnerability "Fake ID."

Worse, it affects almost all Android phones. Bluebox says the vulnerability dates back to the January 2010 release of Android 2.1 and affects all devices that are not patched for "Google bug 13678484," which was disclosed to Google and released for patching in April.

The root of this vulnerability lies inwhat's called a "certificate chain," in which encrypted certificates that verify the identities of Android apps can trust each other to communicate and share data. The vulnerability, however, makes it impossible to verify the authenticity of the certificate chain.

Bluebox outlined some of the implications of this exploit:

An attacker can create a new digital identity certificate, forge a claim that the identity certificate was issued by Adobe Systems, and sign an application with a certificate chain that contains a malicious identity certificate and the Adobe Systems certificate. Upon installation, the Android package installer will not verify the claim of the malicious identity certificate, and create a package signature that contains the both certificates. This, in turn, tricks the certificate-checking code in the webview plugin manager (who explicitly checks the chain for the Adobe certificate) and allows the application to be granted the special webview plugin privilege given to Adobe Systems - leading to a sandbox escape and insertion of malicious code, in the form of a webview plugin, into other applications.

Bluebox Labs researcher Jeff Forristal said he will offer more technical details of the exploit, including how it was found, and how it works, during his talk at the Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas, which begins Aug. 2.

If you use Android 4.4 (known as KitKat) or you recieved Google's April patch before your phone was attacked, you're safe.

Bluebox released a free security scanner that will let you know if your phone has been affected.

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Modi's budget recognises software product startups as a growth engine

Budget 2014 holds the promise of transforming India from just an IT/ITeS outsourcing hub, popular for providing cheap tech labor, to a turf boasting of indigenous software product giants. This calls for hiring versatile techies with an entrepreneurial streak within emerging software tech start-ups

According to NASSCOM there are about 15,000 technology start-ups and SMEs operating in India. Among the large number of SMEs mushrooming in various industry verticals in India, you might ask why this number—specifically within the IT industry—is significant.

The reason is simple. Imagine India emerging as hub of even a handful of indigenous software product giants which run a business comparable to the scope of business of say, HP and IBM. Undoubtedly, this will have a direct impact on the contribution of the IT industry to the Indian economy and also on the absorption of Indian techies by the emerging domestic software product companies.

Tech hiring in the past primarily for IT-ITeS companies

In the past, a major chunk of hiring of Indian tech resources happened within the IT-ITeS industry, with tech professionals being hired at much lesser compensation package than anywhere else across the globe. According to NASSCOM, within India, the IT-BPO industry has created direct employment of 2.2 million and indirect employment of eight million. By 2020, the figures are expected to shoot up to more than 10 million.

Data from TimesJobs.com indicates that currently there is demand for more than 4,700 jobs for entry level candidates in the software space, the biggest chunk of it being in the software development space. According to this data, maximum (roughly 40,000+) software centric jobs are available in the mid-level, where candidates have experience ranging between 5-8 years. This demand is mainly from large tech companies.

Added to this is the huge potential that tech start-ups hold to generate tech jobs within the software product development arena. Considering that India is a hub of brilliant tech resources, why have we not emerged as a hub for software product companies? This inspite of the presence of about 15,000 tech start-ups who have already built their own tech products and solutions.

The answer is a lack of capital as well as lack of proper mentorship which is essential for building the core technology product and also the need to pump money to build proper marketing and sales pipelines to give visibility to the products.

Modi government’s budget that proposes setting aside Rs 10,000 crore for start-ups and SMEs is a move that would give the much needed monetary push to these budding companies. Most importantly, this is the first time that a government has recognised Indian software product start-ups as an emerging industry that holds immense growth potential and has promised special focus on these start-ups.

Budget pushes software product start-ups: Versatile techies to be in demand

There is a huge difference between the kind of tech talent that was so far in demand within IT-ITeS companies and the kind of tech talent that would be in demand in the coming quarters.

Explaining, Sanjay Swamy, managing partner of AngelPrime, a Bangalore based technology incubator, “Typically within the IT-ITeS companies, revenue generation is directly proportional to the number of IT support professionals hired and consequently the number of projects being worked upon. But within a product software company, the key focus is on building a robust tech resource pool that is constantly doing R&D centered on the software product being built.”

Swamy says that a number of experienced tech professionals might like to leverage on the government’s fund backing for start-ups and look at starting their own software product companies. There would also be an increase in demand for young and versatile tech brains with an entrepreneurial spark to build the core R&D team of software product companies. This would also fire up the need for technology marketing professionals who have proven expertise in positioning tech products in the competitive market already mushrooming with tech start-ups and large tech vendors.

Techies can catapult themselves to larger business roles within start-ups

Within software product start-ups, the key criteria that is looked at while hiring tech professionals is a quiver full of strong skill-sets and versatility rather than the number of years of experience. Swamy says that the fact that a particular professional has been working within a tech company for a particular number of years is not going to be enough anymore, when the candidate is looking or a job in tech start-ups.

This means exciting compensation opportunities for young techies who have exceptional skill-sets to jump into the start-up environment. If they are able to present a strong argument on how their expertise in a particular tech domain can contribute in building the start-up’s business and realize better ROI, the compensation package offered might be much more promising than what a large tech vendor could offer.

Apart from the salary aspect, a job role within a tech start-up can actually catapult techies to larger strategic business roles, if they show business value and innovation. This is conventionally not easy to achieve within large tech companies where there is a defined hierarchy of growth.

Though the fine print of the Budget proposals are being awaited, the Rs 10,000 crore debt and risk capital fund proposed to be released in the form of equity and soft loans will definitely give a huge boost to the tech entrepreneurs who have been nurturing brilliant tech products but did not have access to capital so far.

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Andhra Pradesh government targets Rs 12,000 cr investment in IT sector by 2020

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh government aims to attract investment of Rs 12,000 crore in the Information Technology sector and that of Rs 30,000 crore in the electronics sector by 2020, which is expected to generate five lakh jobs.

The government also aims to create "at least one IT literate per family" besides an IT entrepreneur, according to the IT and Communications Minister Palle Raghunatha Reddy.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu released "a blue print" for IT, electronics and e-governance here today.

Explaining its salient features to reporters later, the IT minister said three missions, one each on IT and electronics, e-governance and innovative capacity building, would be created with a budget of Rs 1,785 crore to achieve the objectives.

An advisory council of experts would be set up for each mission.

"Climate for IT sector is very encouraging in the state. Companies are ready to invest in the state but are awaiting the new IT policy. The Chief Minister reviewed it here today and the new policy is expected to be discussed and approved at the next meeting of the Cabinet," Reddy said.

While Visakhapatnam would be the main hub for IT development, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Anantapuram would also see growth in the sector.

An IT incubation centre would be opened in Visakhapatnam by October, the minister said.

Wipro has already readied it's expansion plans in Visakhapatnam to create additional employment for 7,000 youths.

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Citigroup to hire 100 bankers, eyes more business from smaller clients

 HONG KONG: Citigroup plans to hire as many as 100 bankers in a renewed push into Asia-Pacific commercial banking, following in rival HSBC's footsteps with a strategy that focuses on selling smaller corporate clients a wider range of products. 

Global banks like Citi and HSBC are now concentrating on small to medium-sized clients due to a dwindling number of $10 billion-plus IPOs from Chinese state-owned companies - deals which had sustained investment banks in the region over the last decade.

The increase in headcount, which represents a 10 per cent boost for Citi's Asia-Pacific commercial banking unit, is aimed at offering firms with annual sales of between $10 million and $500 million additional services such as foreign exchange and cash management. 

"This is not about adding hundreds of new clients in the region, but winning more wallet share from commercial banking clients who have cross-border business by providing them with more loans, FX, cash and trade products, " Citi's Asia-Pacific commercial banking head Ashish Bajaj said in an interview. 

He noted that Citi's role as joint global coordinator on Luye Pharma Group Ltd's IPO this month came from a commercial banking relationship with the Chinese pharmaceutical company, saying this was an example of the kind of deal the bank is hoping to do more of. 

Citi also plans to target suppliers to major Asian firms such as China's Lenovo Group Ltd and India's Tata Motors LtdBSE -0.40 % and build relationships with start-ups that have the potential to develop into large companies. 

Bajaj cited the example of Indian search engine Just Dial Ltd, a commercial banking client that had capital of only $1,000 in 1996 but which now has a market value of $1.9 billion after listing last year. 

Banking revenue from small and medium-sized companies in emerging markets is set to grow at a rate of 20 per cent per year and could reach over $350 billion by 2015, up from $150 billion in 2010, according to a survey by McKinsey & Company. 

Citi created its commercial banking unit as a separate entity just over two years ago, operating in 32 of the more than 100 countries in which the US bank has a presence and employing around 4,000 staff. 

A source at Citi says its revenues from commercial banking in the region last year were around $1 billion. Bajaj declined to comment on that figure. 

Although earnings figures are not directly comparable as banks include different businesses in their commercial banking units, HSBC's is much larger. It had profits before tax for its commercial bank in Asia Pacific of $4.4 billion last year, according to its annual report. 

Citi also said it will begin commercial banking in Vietnam, adding around 18 staff to the 600 it has there. It will focus on companies from countries such as Korea and Taiwan who have manufacturing businesses in Vietnam. 

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John Kerry praises Tata for creating jobs in US

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry has praised Indian automobile giant Tata for creating thousands of jobs in the United States. 

"Take a look at the jobs that Tata is creating for Americans by expanding auto design and sales in the United States, adding to its 24,000 employees already in this country," Kerry said yesterday in a major foreign policy speech on India at the Center for American Progress, a US think-tank.

"Already, Indian investment creates close to 100,000 jobs right here at home," Kerry said referring to the jobs being created in the US by Indian companies.

In his speech the Secretary of State also praised the American motor company Ford for creating employment opportunities in India.

As the largest India-headquartered multinational in North America, Tata has 12 companies covering diverse operations. 

In the United States these include soda ash mines in Wyoming, coffee manufacturing in Maryland, steel manufacturing facilities in Ohio and Pennsylvania, tea manufacturing and processing in Florida, Georgia, and New Jersey, The Pierre hotel in New York, the Taj Boston hotel and the Taj Campton Place hotel in San Francisco, animation labs in California and IT development centres in California, Michigan, and Ohio. 

Having a presence in North America for over 60 years, some of its popular and recognised brands in the US including Jaguar Land Rover vehicles, Tetley, Good Earth, and Eight O'Clock Coffee.

In his remarks, Kerry said he believes that the United States and India should continue to reach for the ambitious target that Vice President Joe Biden laid out last summer in India, to push from USD 100 billion to USD 500 billion a year in trade.

"And whatever impediments we may face along the way, we need to always be mindful of the opportunities and the bigger picture around this," he said.


"It is completely in our mutual interest to address those obstacles that kind of raise their head here and there as you go along the way and to remember that a lot bigger opportunities will come from more robust ties, so we need to keep our eye on the prize out there and not get dragged down by one small or lesser particular aspect of a restraint," he added.

"The bigger picture has to guide us and the end game has to guide us," Kerry said. 

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How Amazon India Is Changing The E-tailing Game

The global e-commerce giant Amazon entered the Indian terrain about a year ago in June 2013. Since then, a lot has changed in the e-tailing space of the country. Being an experienced player across many countries in the online space, Amazon has brought lot of expertise to the Indian online marketplace, pushing the native players to evolve and change swifter.

Within a couple of years, Amazon has launched a mobile retailing app and now covers 20,000 Pin codes, which is more than any other online retailer does in India. As per analysts, these major steps are aimed at a long-term model where Amazon can maintain its own inventory of products belonging to different sellers without actually relying on last-minute delivery by sellers through logistics companies.

The Indian online retail pie
The Indian online retail pie is not really huge at the moment with an estimated size of $ 2.3 billion, which is 0.4% of the total retailing industry in the country. But the growth of online retail is impressive and the industry is expected to reach the size of $32 billion by 2020 - a significant 3% of the total retail industry. Certainly, this kind of an amazing growth and potential is fuelling the e-tailers in India to go all over. Amazon India is no different and has been on its heels to revolutionise the entire Indian e-tailing space.

Preparing and readying stakeholders
Amazon is quite serious about India and is investing time, effort and money in building up various aspects of the industry, so that it is better prepared to manage the rapid growth. Amazon India has recently tied up with Catamaran - a sign that global giants are taking Indian e-commerce a lot more seriously.

Amazon Asia has partnered with Narayan Murthy's private investment firm Catamaran Ventures to create a new entity which will focus on prepping up sellers and small and medium businesses to go online. This entity, named Taurus Business And Trade Services, will offer its services to the offline sellers and SMBs in the country and make them ready and to go online. The company will offer its services in key Indian cities and towns and will train offline sellers and small and medium businesses in online tools, so that they can expand their online customer base. This step will not only build up the other stakeholders of this industry to grow, it will also help in supporting the huge growth more strongly and benefitting out of it.

Consolidation
Another big impact made by Amazon in Indian e-tailing space is in the form of kicking consolidation big time. Experts say that with a big player like Amazon getting serious about Indian market, it is forcing others (big or small) to up their arsenal so they can stand up to this global giant. In such a scenario, increased and big buzz consolidation is the way to go and that's what the online retails space has witnessed strongly, especially in the last one year.

May 2014 witnessed one of the biggest consolidations in this space so far when one of the biggest Indian e-tailer, Flipkart, acquired the fashion retailer Myntra in what is said to be a whopping Rs 200 crore deal. It is interesting also to look at how the number deals and their total amount in the online retail space has changed in the recent years. In 2012, this space saw about 73 deals worth @371 million. In 2013, the number of deals went to 60, with total deal amount adding up to $592 million. This year, just till May, the industry had seen about 20 deals with a whopping aggregate value of $637 million.

Clearly, the industry has been able to harness bigger amount for the deals. This shows that the investors are ready to spend big bucks on the e-tailers, provided they are promising. At the same time, very small players are finding it difficult to attract investment as due to the consolidation, investors are narrowing their attention to the mid size and biggies of the industry.

Simply stated, big firms in the industry are zeroing in on small ones to increase their presence, reach and portfolio in the market. This helps in creating scale and the companies and the customers, both will benefit from this.

Competition
With the rate at which Amazon India is expanding its reach as well as portfolio along with its innovative services, there is a lot of stirring up in the industry and the competition is getting fierce. In December 2013, Amazon introduced in-a-day delivery service, which pushed other key players, including Flipkart and Snapdeal to launch the same in order to stay in the game.

Another unique service that the company has currently launched in select cities is customer pick up facilities from select pick up points. Yes, just like a 'take away' food model, Amazon is out there trying to enrol kiranas as delivery points. In select cities, the e-tailer has enlisted some of the mom and pops stores as the pick-up points for customers. The product will be shipped to these stores and the customers can pick up their deliveries. This would help in expanding the reach of customers and manage the failed delivery problems.

Amazon has become the trendsetter in online retail market, forcing others to pull up their socks and deliver better. This is changing the rules on the e-tailing game with companies being forced to become more agile and proactive and customer service becoming more effective. 

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World‘s 10 most internet addicted countries

In this modern world Internet is the basic means for communication, trading, entertainment, knowledge, social engagement. With every passing day the utility of Internet is increasing worldwide with rise in flow of information. Here is a list of 10 most internet addicted countries in 2014:1. Iceland. Iceland doesn't have the fastest internet service in the world, but 96.2% of population is connected. The denizens use renewable energy to access the web. They have been the core of international web traffic. 2. Norway. With 95% of connected population, Norway became the first non-English speaking country to go online. It is among the top 10 countries having fastest internet speed.3. Sweden. Globally Sweden holds 8th and 5th place in desktop and mobile internet access speed, respectively. The most influential torrent site "The Pirate Bay" was founded in Sweden in 2003. 94% of its population is online.4. Netherlands. Netherlands has the fastest desktop internet speeds among the internet-addicted countries. After the country's 2010 initiatives, the availability of internet exploded from around 700,000 homes to over 7 million. 93% of the population is connected.5. Denmark. Denmark has the 6th fastest desktop internet speed and the 2nd best mobile speed in the world. 93% of its population has access to internet.6. Finland. Finland has a comprehensive web infrastructure and local country code '.fi'. It is the first country to declare fast broadband access as a part of human right in 2009, with the aim to provide 100 Mbps speed to all by 2015.7. New Zealand. 89.5% of New Zealand's population has access to internet. It is 46th in the list of countries having highest download speed. The country aims to connect 97.8% of its population by 2019.8. United Kingdom. With 87% of population online, UK was among first few countries to build up a modern web infrastructure, and the country code '.uk'.9. Switzerland. Switzerland has the fastest internet connection in the world. 85.2% of the population is connected10.Canada. In a country with 86.8 percent of online population, Canadian internet addicts suffer the extreme problem of worst connections in the developed world. A recent Net Index ranked Canada's upload speed at 5.67 Mbps, far below the global average of 7.6 Mbps, and while some regions do have much faster access available, the country's service providers offer at exceptionally uncompetitive rates

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Tips and Tricks for the Skype Job Interview

Business school career centers have long prepared students for job interviews, but now they have a new platform to contend with. Enough companies now interview for jobs and internships over Skype that career offices have started to train business students in the art of conversing on video chat.

You'd think that digital natives could pull it off easily, but more can go wrong than you think, says Stacey Rudnick, director of MBA career services at University of Texas' McCombs School of Business. "Students need practice with that to be comfortable," she says, citing the video and audio failures as common hiccups. "It's also just harder to get a feel for the room."

Students often think they're more prepared than they really are, says Randy Bitting, founder of InterviewStream, which sells interview preparation systems to schools and companies, including nearly two dozen top B-schools. "Business schools are finding that there's an enormous gap between how students view themselves as prepared, compared to how employers view them in interviews."

Beware of wardrobe malfunctions

Jamie King Belinne, assistant dean for career services at University of Houston's Bauer College of Business, says while students typically dress professionally before face-to-face interviews, they tend to slack off during video chats. She says the standards are the same, and it's always better to overdress.

"Students have a challenge because they feel video interviews aren't as real as in-person interviews," she says. "We have to remind them to put on their suit."

Karen Dowd, assistant dean of career management and corporate engagement at University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business, says one student during a virtual interview last year wore all the right things — but only above the belt. When he had to get up from his chair during the Skype interview, "he was in his boxer shorts," she says.

Tech glitches won't sink an interview, but how you handle them might

Most people get frustrated by Skype chats with friends that cut out the feed or drop audio. Jobs interviews have much higher stakes, so it's best to make sure you have a strong wireless connection before getting on a video call, says Belinne.

When Belinne conducted a video interview for an open position at her past job, an applicant ruined her chances of getting the job because of how she reacted to glitchy audio. "They were having trouble hearing me, but I could hear them," she says. "I decided I didn't want to hire them, because they went on a cursing rampage in a stressful situation."

Be aware of your environment

Students can also mess up their interview backdrop. They should choose a private office or clean bedroom, and use as much natural light as possible, Dowd says. "Don't have a bar sign in the background of a basement."

Don't be a jerk, or be boring

If students perceive the video interview as less formal than a face-to-face interview, they may forget to check their ego, Bitting says. "The key is coming across as confident, but not overconfident, which happens a lot with business students."

They can also fall into the same distraction-prone tendencies that they would in class or at the office, like checking email or reading notes, he adds.Because non-verbal cues get lost on video chat, Dowd says students should make sure their voice intonations aren't flat or monotone. She suggests students should make sure they have a conversation with someone before the interview, even if it's first thing in the morning. "The person has to almost artificially pump themselves up ahead of time."

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Apple will set the world on fire with iPhone 6

Analysts anticipate an 'unbelievably massive' second half of '14 for a new, larger-screen iPhone, in part because Apple's committed a near-record $21B for components, tooling and manufacturing

Apple will "set the world on fire" with "unbelievably massive" sales of the next iPhone, analysts said this week.

"As well as they did with the iPhone this quarter, with all the rumors of a new iPhone [this fall], I was impressed with the results," Van Baker of Gartner said about Apple's second-quarter earnings released on Tuesday. "That tells me when the next generation comes out, they're going to set the world on fire."

On July 22, Apple reported it sold 35.2 million iPhones in the second quarter, a 13% increase over the same period the year before. The number was under Wall Street's expectations of 35.8 million, but still surprising to some, Baker included, because sales have tended to droop in the quarter prior to the debut of new models.

Virtually everyone expects Apple to unveil at least one new iPhone, possibly several, in September and the following months, if only because of a rising tide of component leaks from sieve-like Asian suppliers. That smartphone, dubbed "iPhone 6" by outsiders in lieu of any formal acknowledgement by Apple, will reportedly boast a larger 4.7-in. screen, with an even-bigger second model sporting a 5.5-in. display possible at the same time, or more likely, later this year or early in 2015.

"But there's a lot of pent-up demand among developed economies for a bigger iPhone, too," Baker contended. "I think [the iPhone 6] is      poised to do extremely well."And China, as Apple CEO Tim Cook has repeatedly said, is the company's best growth opportunity.

Other long-time Apple watchers were on board, too. "I am extremely bullish about the iPhone 6," said Ben Thompson, an independent analyst who covers the technology field from his Stratechery website. "It's going to be unbelievably massive."

Apple seems to be expecting the same: In the second quarter, it committed a near-record $21 billion to third-party manufacturers for components and equipment as they presumably geared up for a string of new product announcements this fall.

Those commitments, as Apple has regularly laid out in its quarterly filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, are pre-payments for outsourced manufacturing and the components those companies use to assemble products. As of the end of June, Apple had $15.4 billion in such commitments.

Also off the balance sheet was an additional $5.6 billion in obligations, mostly for acquiring manufacturing and tooling equipment put in place by Apple's component makers and product assemblers.

The $21 billion total, then, is an indication of Apple's own build forecasts for the coming quarters, and thus its expectations for sales. The $21 billion is 46% higher than the same period the year before, a quarter prior to the launch of the iPhone 5S and 5C. The $15.4 billion in manufacturing/component commitments is 18.5% higher than that line in the second quarter of 2013.

Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research, after agreeing that the numbers are big, cautioned against reading too much into the data, which some have used to bolster opinions that Apple will introduce at least one new product category, probably a wearable line, this year.

Apple's pre-paid commitments for components, tooling and equipment to third-party suppliers and manufacturers exploded in the June quarter, a signal, say analysts, of a huge second half of 2014 for the impending iPhone 6. (Data: Apple, SEC filings.)

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The Weird Thing About The Facebook Page For Apple's iPhone

There is a Facebook page for iPhone, and it has nearly 3.5 million fans. But it's not run by Apple.

It's a fan page. Apple doesn't actually have a Facebook page for iPhone.

In fact, Apple's presence on Facebook is inconsistent. There is a page for the App Store. And a (barely updated) page for Apple Inc. There is also a page for iTunes. The iTunes page has 32 million likes. But iPhone, the biggest consumer electronics brand in the world, has no official presence in the largest social media venue on the planet.

I was talking with a social media marketing executive recently, and he regarded this as madness. Facebook fanbases can become a huge asset to a company. They can be used for customer relations, or to show users how to do new things with existing products.

A Facebook page would be perfect for the iPhone - there are a gazillion functions on iPhone that most consumers don't even know exist. And yet, Apple lets this vast reservoir go to waste.

There are two theories about this.

The first is that Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller doesn't "get" social media. When Apple's marketing division went through a crisis in 2013 - and the company began the process of looking beyond its longtime ad agency, TBWA Media Arts Lab - TBWA suggested that maybe Apple should at least begin monitoring social media, to see how its brand stacked up against rivals like Samsung over time.

Schiller saw no need for it. He told TBWA in an email:

I think paying money for social media tracking tools is nuts. It is easy to track social media, I do it every day, there are lots of summary feeds, groups, and notification tools built right in to the social networking sites, all free.

(i think the guys at samsung sat around a coffee table watching Twitter and Facebook feeds and didn't need to pay for anything in the example below)

One might also say the idea of Schiller personally tracking Apple's social media mentions himself is also kinda nuts. That would be a huge undertaking.

Social media is the most powerful new marketing tool of the current century. It can make or break companies and brands. Samsung launched the Galaxy SIII on Facebook, for instance. Most large companies have social media teams consisting of dozens of people, even when they're only tracking consumer feedback.

From this perspective, Apple appears to be ignoring one of the best assets it has - its loyal army of fans. (And it's not clear that Apple's advertising has emerged from its own crisis, either.)

The second explanation is best summarized in this CNBC story about why Apple doesn't have a Twitter account either. "Apple has nothing to gain by creating an account," Belus Capital analyst Brian Sozzi told CNBC. "Apple isn't going to be like Starbucks and run promoted tweets offering dollars off a product for a limited time. Apple is a premium experience all around, you go to Apple, they do not go to you."

CNBC pointed out how disinterested Apple is in social media feedback by pointing to this YouTube video for one of its recent ads for iPad, which asks, "We're humbled and inspired by what people do with iPad. So we set out to capture some of their stories. What will your verse be?"

Comments are disabled, and the link points to an Apple corporate page - that also does not allow comments.

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8 tips to save eyes from computer vision syndrome

Working on computers is essential in several professions, while a sizeable number do so for leisure or communication needs. But very few are aware of the flip side of working on computers. Computer screens emit a harmful blue light that is dangerous to human eyes and prolonged usage can lead to what has come to be known as digital eye strain in medical lexicon.

However, just taking a few simple steps can keep your eyes from getting strained, irritated and dry despite using your computer all day long.

1. Keep your screen clean

July 29,2014

Dirt, dust and fingerprints on the computer screen make it harder to read what’s on the screen. If you ignore the grime continuously, it becomes a habit and can lead to chronic headaches in the long run.

Good thing is that this can be easily avoided. Take a minute out of your schedule and wipe the computer screen daily. It will be enough to keep your screen regularly cleaned and avoid you the extra strain.

2. Use proper lighting

July 29,2014

Too much light, either from an internal source or direct sunlight through a window, causes eye strain as much as seeing on the screen out in the sun.

Place your computer in a way that the windows are neither in front or behind it, but on the sides. Absolutely eliminating exterior light is even better.

Also, avoid working under overhead fluorescent lights. If that is not possible, at least try switching to "full spectrum" fluorescent lights which are more comforting for computer work than regular fluorescent tubes.

3. Use fonts that are easy to read

July 29,2014

It may sound obvious, but computer screens have a way of making us forget to blink. It is, in fact, very common to blink less frequently while working on the computer. But blinking at regular intervals while working on computers is essential as it moistens eyes and prevents them from dryness and irritation.

If you still feel dryness or irritation in your eyes, switch to using lubricating eye drops prescribed by your doctor. And if you suffer from chronically dry, itchy eyes, then using a laptop instead of a desktop computer is recommended. When you’re looking down at a laptop, your eyes tend to stay more moist.

4. Blink regularly

July 29,2014

It may sound obvious, but computer screens have a way of making us forget to blink. It is, in fact, very common to blink less frequently while working on the computer. But blinking at regular intervals while working on computers is essential as it moistens eyes and prevents them from dryness and irritation.

If you still feel dryness or irritation in your eyes, switch to using lubricating eye drops prescribed by your doctor. And if you suffer from chronically dry, itchy eyes, then using a laptop instead of a desktop computer is recommended. When you’re looking down at a laptop, your eyes tend to stay more moist.

5. Follow the 20-20-20 rule

July 29,2014

Another very simple rule, but also a necessity. All that you have to do is take a 20 seconds break, every 20 minutes to focus on something 20 feet away from you. 

This simple task will help you maintain a healthy level of moisture in your eyes, and also reduce eye strain. You can add another 20 to it by sitting at least 20 inches away from your computer screen.

Segmenting time spent on the device proves to be very beneficial in the long run.

6. Annual eye test

July 29,2014

Get a comprehensive eye examination conducted at least once a year. It helps you prevent vision problems if you don’t have them, and keep a check in case you are already suffering.

A comprehensive eye test is even otherwise an important barometer of overall health. Risk for things like stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, brain tumours, aneurysms, and multiple sclerosis can be evaluated just by testing your eyes. 

When you go for the eye test, do inform your doctor how much you use the computer.

7. Consider using computer glasses

July 29,2014

It is always a good idea to invest in computer glasses, because using them reduces strain on your neck, back and eyes. The anti-reflective or anti-glare coating on their specialized lenses softens the glare of harsh lights emitted from the computer screens. But you can use computer glasses only if the doctor has recommended them.

8. Green diet

July 29,2014

Besides these tips, there are a number of other steps you can take to keep your eyes fit such as seeing a doctor regularly, and including dark leafy greens like spinach, broccoli, zucchini, peas etc in your diet. It is important that prevention and care begins at the right time for eyes. After all, we can enjoy our gadgets only if our eyes support us.

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