Twitter Unveils ‘Fabric’ Platform for Developers

  Twitter on Wednesday set out to weave itself into mobile applications with a free "Fabric" platform to help developers build better programs and make more money. 

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo touted Fabric as "the future of mobile software development" while unveiling the platform at the one-to-many messaging service's first conference for makers of applications for smartphones or tablet computers. 

Fabric consists of software tools to tackle challenges such as stability and distribution of applications as well as streamlining user log ins and placing ads. 

The move could build Twitter functions directly into new mobile apps, which could greatly expand the reach of the messaging platform. 

Twitter has been under pressure to build up its ranks of users, and making itself a global foundation for sharing, communicating, and placing money-making ads would put it at the heart of modern day mobile Internet lifestyles. 

A kit for making sense of application performance data is built on Twitter-owned Crashlytics, while ad management uses the San Francisco-based company's MoPub mobile ad exchange. 

"We started Fabric more than a year ago to take on, tackle, and solve challenges faced by developers," Crashlytics co-founder and Twitter product manager Jeff Seibert said during a keynote presentation at the Flight conference for mobile developers. 

Fabric puts Twitter at the heart of letting users share comments in real-time from inside mini-programs and providing a common way for people to log in, according to demonstrations at the day-long San Francisco conference. 

Fabric promised to weave Twitter into all kinds of mobile applications around the world by letting developers easily build in "tweeting" and logging in using Twitter IDs. 

"Nothing is as powerful as someone using your app and wanting to share a moment of pure joy being able to do that instantly," Seibert told developers. 

The list of more than 100 "beta" partners for the Fabric launch included McDonald's, Spotify, Jawbone, and the Wall Street Journal. 

"We view Twitter as a very complementary news channel to all of our news brands," said News Corp senior vice president of strategy Raju Narisetti, whose company operates the newspaper. 

"Now, our app is part of the conversation people are having about our journalism." 

Fabric is being used to quickly detect and fix bugs at streaming music service Spotify, and to let users share songs, according to global business head Jorge Espinel. 

"Music is social and meant to be shared, so having a simple implementation to have fans share music via Twitter is critical," Espinel said while taking part in the keynote presentation. 

Fabric kits were made available to developers at Flight and will be rolled out broadly to the developer community in coming days, according to Twitter. 

Fun, functional or hip applications are seen as vital to the popularity of smartphones or tablets.

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The Best New Android Feature Is a Smarter Lock Screen

 Brand new design, better battery life, seamless device switching! The newest version of Android brings a lot to the table. But its best feature is a little further under the surface: Smart lock screens that will let you be super secure without ever entering a PIN again.

Teased back at Google I/O but now appearing in the developer build of Android Lollipop, the new feature works like this: Pair a gadget with your phone-maybe a watch or a speaker or a pair of bluetooth headphones-and Android will ask you if it's a "trusted device." If you say that it is, you can set up your lock screen to disable whenever your phone and that device are paired. So when your phone is close to the fitness tracker on your wrist or connected to the speaker in your bedroom, there's no lock screen. But if there's nothing familiar around, lock screen engage! Phones like the Moto X have had features like this before, but now the functionality is coming to stock Android.

It's a simple little change, but one that can make all the difference for security. Yeah, we all know we should have lock screens-preferably passwords over PINs-to stay safe, but it's easy for convenience to win out. I'm ashamed to admit I haven't had a lock screen on my phone for months, and I love every second of it. With this new feature I can-and will-set up some wildly obnoxious password that's insanely secure, but that I'll almost never have to type in. Strong security I never have to see! It's the same logic behind phone-unlocking NFC tags like Motorola's Skip (or whatever insane DIY setup you can gin up), except it works with the gadgets I already have.

The catch, of course, is that its utility is limited to how many Bluetooth devices you have and use. Folks without a smartwatch or other Bluetooth wearable will get way less use from this than nerds who are all gadget-ed up. That and constant Bluetooth connections will gnaw away at your battery life ever-so-slightly. The alternative is to disable the lock screen when connected to trusted Wi-Fi, but that still takes a little tweaking. Still, this is a step in the right direction: More secure and less annoying. Now if onlytwo-factor authentication could be this smooth.

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Flipkart Beats Amazon In Terms Of Diwali Traffic

 The Indian e-commerce industry has already witnessed plenty of fireworks much before Diwali crackers have started bursting. As the online festive discount season draws to a close, it seems Flipkart is ahead of the rest in terms of traffic, in spite of the consumer backlash that it had to face on October 6.

The biggest rival for Flipkart, Amazon, which concluded its week-long Diwali Dhamaka on October 16, witnessed a 200 per cent (two-fold) jump in its traffic on the first day of the week long sale, the company said. For Flipkart, the growth in traffic was 10 times that of a normal day on October 6. Incidentally, traffic growth doesn't always translate into higher sales as one might not finally order a product after visiting the site. On actual sales, Flipkart said it had a GMV (gross merchandise value) of $100 million on the Big Billion Day (October 6). Given that Flipkart had achieved sales of $1 billion in annual GMV in 2013-14, its average daily sales last financial year should have been about $2.7 million. So, Flipkart recorded almost 40-times growth in sales on October 6, going by the numbers given by the company. Amazon does not share its GMV. 

Experts say that Flipkart as an Indian brand generates more expectations when it comes to deals and discounts. "They are seen as more street smart as a brand when compared to Amazon which is known internationally for quality service and consumer satisfaction rather than discounts," Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Future Brands, had told this newspaper recently. However, many are also of the view that loyalty is rarely witnessed in online buying patterns and the cheapest deals would find the highest takers. And, Flipkart mostly offered deeper discounts than its rivals.

While the guerilla campaign over Diwali sales were primarily built by Flipkart and Amazon, Delhi-based Snapdeal turned out to be a smart gainer. Snapdeal not only gained positive reviews on social networking sites, it was also the top trending topic on Twitter on October 6.

It witnessed a 15-times growth in traffic on Flipart's Big Billion Day and announced sales worth Rs 1 crore a minute.

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iPhone 6 Owners Demand Answers on ‘Bendgate‘

After 180 complaints about bent iPhones - including one where the device apparently "caught fire" - one website is demanding that Apple provide an explanation

Apple today came under further pressure from users of the iPhone 6 to provide more details on whether the handsets bend too easily.

A website collating images of bent iPhones spotted on social media such as Twitter and Instagram claims to have 180 different examples, up significantly from Apple's earlier statement that it had seen just nine damaged handsets.

Early customer complaints that the latest iPhone bends easily when placed in pockets or bags prompted a rare statement from Apple, saying it shouldn't do so when used normally and that only nine complaints had been received.

Since then, however, reports of damaged phones have continued to grow online as millions more iPhones have been sold.

The new website, One of the Nine, has also written an open letter to Apple demanding further explanation.

I assume these to only be a small fraction of one per cent of the problem as most people would not choose to go online to report the problem but simply return the unit to the store," says the letter.

"Some users reported being able to exchange their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus after returning it to an Apple Store. However an equal number were also turned down for a replacement and told they will have to pay for it.

"Can you please share the policy that is used in store to determine whether a warranty replacement is given?"

One user from Japan listed on the website seems to claim that his phone was slightly bent when it arrived in the box. Another user, listed as number 150, said: ”I’ve had my iPhone 6 for about a month, and I have been extremely careful with it. I had it in my front pocket for a short time on Saturday and the top 1/5 is bent. I called Apple to find out about a replacement since I heard on the news that this is a problem. The employee acted like it was just an internet hoax. I can assure you, it is not a hoax.”

Some of those posting pictures have reported that Apple replaced their bent handsets. Others claim that they were charged for repairs or replacements.

One person last week even claimed that his iPhone "caught fire" after it was bent in a rickshaw ride, when it leaned over to one side but did not tip over, and he saw smoke wafting from his trousers.

"Somehow in the process of the tipping of the rickshaw my new Apple iPhone 6 had bent in my front pocket and caught on fire," claimed Phillip Lechter on his blog.

"I could feel my leg burning. I pulled the Apple iPhone 6 out of my pocket and threw it to the side. Someone from a crowd of spectators threw a cup of water on my leg to put the fire out on my jeans."

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Gartner Predicts Positive Modi Effect On e-India

Prime minister narendra Modi’s much-hailed ‘Digital India’ initiative, which earned a vote of confidence from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who met the PM in early October) is expected to boost the government’s IT spending by 5 percent to $7.2 billion in 2015, estimates technology research firm Gartner.

A chunk of these expenses is expected to be incurred in the revving up of external IT services and telecommunications, the development of broadband and cloud-based initiatives, and the creation of digitally-governed smart cities across the country.

Anurag Gupta, research director, Gartner, said in a statement, “The delivery of a citizen-centric and transparent government is only possible through the extensive use of technology and by leveraging digital government.”

Gartner also identified the top strategic technology trends for 2015 in its report. It defines “strategic trends” as those that are likely to have a significant impact on an organisation for the next three years and have “a high potential for disruption of the business [for both end users and IT] and the need for a major investment”.

Gartner analyst David Cearley noted that “the merging of the real and virtual worlds, the advent of intelligence everywhere, and the technology impact of the digital business shift” will define tech in the coming year.

Some of the trends to watch out for are:

• Computing everywhere with the rise of handheld devices
• Rise of 3D printing
• Advanced analytics with every app becoming an ‘analytic app’
• Convergence of cloud and mobile computing
• Growth of ‘smart machines’ in which advanced algorithms will allow systems to understand their environment, learn for themselves, and act autonomously
• Advent of ‘web-scale IT’, a pattern of computing that delivers the capabilities of large cloud service providers within an enterprise IT setting
• Risk-based security and self-protection

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Google Offers Guide To Help iOS Users Switch To Android

 
Designed for iPhone and iPad users, the new Switch website explains everything from transferring photos and music to setting up email and messaging.

Google has launched a website called Switch that has one goal in mind: educate Apple iPhone and iPad users on how they can easily move their data to Android-based devices.

Essentially a manual, it describes how owners of Apple devices, which run the iOS mobile operating system, can take photos and music and bring them to devices running Google's Android, as well as transfer contacts, set-up email and find apps that they were using on their iOS-based devices.

While the site is somewhat small in its scope, it's an obvious shot at Apple. The site provides detailed instructions on getting content from one device to another and touts how "simple" it is to transfer that information.

Apple and Google have been in a war of words -- and a battle for customers -- over the last several years with each side hammering the other for seeming shortfalls. Apple at a special press event last week took aim at Android's alleged fragmentation, pointing out that the platform is having trouble getting users onto a single version of the software. Google, meanwhile, tends to focus on the benefits of Android and features where it believes its product stands out.

Google's Android has about a 51 percent share of the US market when it comes to smartphone platforms, according to a report last month from research firm ComScore. Apple has slightly more than 42 percent of the market.

The iPhone maker last month launched its own guide on how to switch from Android to iOS. Like Google, Apple provides directions on how to make the move and explains how it believes the switch is easy.

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Rich List: Mumbai University Has More Billionaire Alumni Than MIT

 Who knew that Mumbai University would have produced more number of billionaires than some of the best universities in USA or UK. Wealth-X, in association with UBS, has released Billionaires census 2014, which reveals the top universities of the world that have shaped the maximum number of billionaires.

The Top 10 universities list is filled with American schools, other than the number 9 and 10 spot. Mumbai University features at the ninth place that has produced 12 billionaires. Surprisingly, Mumbai University has beaten New York University and MIT in the list. University of Pennsylvania leads the list with 25 billionaires with Harward in second place with 22.

Another startling fact that came to light from this list is that only one UK based school features in the list and no it is not oxford. London School of Economics is at number 10 that has prepared 11 billionaires. The top 20 list has only 4 outsiders, the rest are all universities from USA. The Russian Lomonosov Moscow State University is at number 11 and ETH Zurich is at number 20.

Interestingly, 35% of the 2,325 billionaires in the world have not obtained a tertiary-level degree. The Wealth-X and UBS study suggests that higher education is not a precondition to becoming a billionaire.

However, In India studies are considered as the most essential part of growing up. Each parent wants the child to grow up and become successful in their lives, hence education is very important if one wants to climb the success ladder. But, on the other side, if you look at some of the biggest names in the Billionaires arena, have not completed college. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg being the most prominent of them all.

Top 20 list of universities that produced the maximum billionaires:

1. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA (UNITED STATES) — 25

2. HARVARD UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 22

3. YALE UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 20

4. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (UNITED STATES) — 16

5. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 14

6. CORNELL UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 14

7. STANFORD UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) 14

8. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY (UNITED STATES) — 12

9. UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI (INDIA) — 12

10. LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE (UNITED KINGDOM) — 11

11. LOMONOSOV MOSCOW STATE UNIVERSITY (RUSSIA) — 11

12. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS (UNITED STATES) — 10

13. DARTMOUTH COLLEGE (UNITED STATES) — 10

14. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (UNITED STATES) — 10

15. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 9

16. DUKE UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 9

17. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 8

18. BROWN UNIVERSITY (UNITED STATES) — 8

19. MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (UNITED STATES) — 7

20. ETH ZURICH SWITZERLAND — 6

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4G Rollout Is A Tough, Costly Job For Telecom Operators

 Network deployment for 4G LTE is a complex and expensive task for telecom operators, especially in emerging economies such as India which have low average-revenue-per user (ARPU), Jon Penrose, a US-based telecom industry consultant at Teradata said.

Deploying LTE networks in India and globally is a hugely complex and expensive task for mobile network operators. Enhanced capabilities and benefits like bandwidth-on-demand require complex go-to-market and customer management strategies, Penrose told ET.

Emerging competitive threats from Over-the-Top (OTT) applications and services threaten to further reduce already low ARPUs and continue to mount a sustained challenge to the long-term revenue generation potential of 4G services.

Penrose says that speed advantages are not very useful as a differentiating factor. "Network speeds cannot be guaranteed, and are usually temporary, highly regionalized, and easy for the competition to replicate and outside the operator's control".

Despite increasing hoopla around 4G, telcos are taking a very cautious approach as fully monetizing network investments involves launching compelling new applications and services while India lacks the ecosystem that include insufficiency of 4G-capable devices, experts say.

The prioritization of 4G-technology rollout would be towards the main metropolitan areas as it would be initially seen as a premium service.

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm and Sunil Mittal-driven Bharti Airtel are two serious 4G contenders in India.

Bharti Airtel has rolled out services based on TDD (Time-Division Duplex) LTE technology on 2,300 Mhz band in select cities. Jio, that got BWA spectrum in 2300MHz band in 2010, has said that it will commercially launch 4G services in 2015, a timeline which it needs to adhere to meet rollout obligations.

Penrose said that operators would be mindful of the significant role that pre-existing 2G and 3G technologies, particularly in areas where the limited return on investment opportunities make 4G rollout a less attractive proposition for the network operators.

"The availability of high-speed mobile data communication through 4G-LTE networks and capabilities will continue to be an essential enabler of India's ongoing economic development and growth," he added.

Many of the well-established 4G device providers are targeting lower-cost products specifically towards the Indian market as they seek to consolidate and expand their position within the rapidly developing space.

"Combined with the competition from Chinese and Taiwanese handset manufactures, and the rapidly developing market for home-grown 4G devices, it looks likely that the downward pressure on handset prices will continue for the foreseeable future," said Penrose.

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7 Things You Did Not Know Your Browser Could Do

 The most-used program on your computer is your Web browser, but there's a good chance you don't know much about it besides how to visit your favorite sites. In fact, there are a lot of myths about browsers,some of which I've dispelled in the past.

Today, though, I'm helping you get the most out of your browser with a few simple tricks that you really need to know.

1. Choose your home page

What's the first thing you see when your browser starts up? If you're using Internet Explorer, it's probably MSN's website. Chrome loads up a modified Google page and Firefox has its own start page.

If you find yourself always heading to the same site first thing, though, why not just start there?

In Chrome, click the icon on the right with the three horizontal bars and choose Settings. On the left column, choose Settings and then look under "On Startup."

Set it to "Open a specific page or set of pages" and then click the "Set pages" link. Type in one or more Web addresses and then click OK. The page — or pages — will load when Chrome starts.

In Firefox, click the icon on the right with the three horizontal bars and choose Options. On the General tab, set "When Firefox starts" to "Show my homepage." Then under that, type in the address you want for your home page. Then click OK.

In Internet Explorer, click the gear icon on the right and select Internet Options. Go to the General tab and under "Home page" enter the Web address you want to see on startup.

In Safari on Apple, go to Safari>>Preferences. On the General tab, go do to "Homepage" and type in an address. Done!

2. Pin tabs

This one is for Chrome and Firefox users who have favorite sites they leave open all day. Load up the site, right-click on the browser tab and choose "Pin Tab."

The page will appear as a smaller tab on the left side of the tab bar. No matter how many tabs you have open it will still be sitting there. It will even appear again when you restart the browser. To unpin a tab you don't want anymore, just right-click and choose "Unpin Tab."

3. Middle-click to open tabs

If you're using a mouse that was made after the mid-2000s, then it probably has a scroll wheel. Did you know that if you press down on the scroll wheel it acts as a middle mouse button?

OK, you knew that. But did you know that clicking on a Web link with the middle mouse button opens that link in a new browser tab? Give it a try; it will change your life — or at least your browsing.

4. Zoom text

Have you ever visited a page with text that was too small? If you've ever leaned in close to a computer monitor to read, you need to know this.

To zoom text — and images — in any browser, just press CTRL and the plus key at the same time. Hit it a few times to zoom way in. Too far? Hold CTRL and hit the minus key to zoom back out. CTRL and the zero key resets the zoom.

Or, you can hold down the CTRL key and spin your mouse's scroll wheel. That will quickly zoom in and out.

5. Browse privately

Don't want your significant other knowing what his or her birthday present is? Want to make it hard for snoops to know where you're going online? Just fire up your browser's privacy mode.

In every browser aside from Chrome, press CTRL+SHIFT+P (CTRL+OPTION+P on a Mac). In Chrome use CTRL+SHIFT+N (OPTION+SHIFT+N on a Mac). You'll instantly be in a separate private browsing window.

6. See if your browser needs updating

An out-of-date browser is very dangerous. It might have unfixed security flaws that hackers can use to take over your computer. Or you might just be missing out on some of the latest and greatest Internet sites that use newer Web standards. Either way, keeping your browser up to date is essential.

7. See your online accounts and passwords

Do you remember every online account you've ever made? I know I sure don't.

Your browser does, though. It stores your usernames and passwords so it can fill them in for you automatically when you want to log in to online accounts.

That's helpful, but by default this information isn't very secure. Anyone who gets on your computer can see it if they know how. With Chrome and Firefox it's a quick trip to the settings area, and for Internet Explorer a small free download called IE PassView can do the trick in seconds

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Father Son Duo Sue Facebook, Ferrari

A Swiss father and his son who gained millions of Facebook Inc followers through their Ferrari SpA fan pages sued the social media company and the carmaker claiming they teamed up to illegally seize control of the websites. The lawsuit filed in California state court follows earlier legal spats in Europe between Olivier and Sammy Wasem and the sports car company over their "Ferrari Fan Page" and a "Formula 1 Vision" page. 

"Ferrari wanted it," the Wasems said in a complaint filed October 14 in San Mateo County Superior Court. "So, with Facebook's knowledge and substantial assistance, Ferrari took it." 

The Wasems claim that after their page debuted in June 2008, Ferrari created its own page that wasn't as popular, prompting the company to ask Facebook to give it administrative control over the Ferrari Fan Page. In March 2009 the sports car company contacted the Wasems and said "legal issues" had forced it to take over administration of their page, they said. 

After the Ferrari co-administrator was added without permission from the Wasems, the company began to negotiate with them about a partnership to manage the fan page and create a Formula 1 page, according to the complaint. In 2012, the Wasems said, Facebook notified them that they had been downgraded to content creators, and the social networking company cut off their access entirely to both fan pages last year.

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Photo Sharing Site Twitpic Is Doomed After All

 It's been a pretty tumultuous couple of months for photo-sharing site Twitpic.

Early last month, the company announced that it was shutting down on Sept. 25, citing a trademark dispute with Twitter. A couple weeks later, the company announced that it had been acquired, and would no longer be shutting its doors.

In a blog post on its site today, Twitpic founder Noah Everett announced that Twitpic is, in fact, shutting down after all:

It's with a heavy heart that I announce again that Twitpic will be shutting down on October 25th. We worked through a handful of potential acquirers and exhausted all potential options. We were almost certain we had found a new home for Twitpic (hence our previous tweet), but agreeable terms could not be met. Normally we wouldn't announce something like that prematurely but we were hoping to let our users know as soon as possible that Twitpic was living on.

I'm sincerely sorry (and embarrassed) for the circumstances leading up to this, from our initial shutdown announcement to an acquisition false alarm.

The post also offers a link with how to export all your photos you have on the site. It's limited to only the most recent 5,000 pictures.

TechCrunch's Josh Constine says that the tool is lagging right now, but that's probably because a flood of people are trying to download their photos at the same time.

Twitpic has been around since 2008 and allowed you to share photos on Twitter long before you were natively allowed to do so from within Twitter. It's also one of the only ways to tweet out animated GIFs on popular Twitter feed readers like TweetDeck.

The dispute that led to the end of Twitpic has to do with trademarks. Twitpic was contacted by Twitter and asked to abandon the trademark application or Twitter would shut down its API access. Rather than fight the company, Everett decided to shut Twitpic down.

Twitter said that it would allow Twitpic to use the name, and only objected to the company's trademark application.

"We're sad to see Twitpic is shutting down," a Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider at the time. "We encourage developers to build on top of the Twitter service, as Twitpic has done for years, and we made it clear that they could operate using the Twitpic name. Of course, we also have to protect our brand, and that includes trademarks tied to the brand."

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Lenovo to form new company with focus on smart devices

The Chinese tech giant will form a new subsidiary that will have a different name and branding with an aim to sell directly to customers in China via the internet.

It appears Lenovo wants in on the lucrative online sales action that Xiaomi's been enjoying so far. The Chinese tech company known globally for its notebooks will be setting up a new subsidiary next year on April 1 to focus on smart devices and Internet sales in China.

Lenovo's press release says that the new company will have a different name and branding, and will be helmed by its current president of China and Asia Pacific and emerging markets, Chen Xudong.

The company will also move Liu Jun, its current head of the company's mobile business group and the head of the ecosystem and cloud services group, George He, to the new company.

Like Xiaomi, the new company will sell new phones and tablets only through the Internet, skipping the distributors and carriers.

However, despite the vast resources and branding that Lenovo has, the road ahead may not be an easy task.

"Xiaomi isn't just about selling cheaper phones online; developing a cult following will be a challenge if Lenovo is really emulating Xiaomi," says IDC analyst Bryan Ma.

"Xiaomi comes from a software background versus Lenovo's hardware roots. It will be interesting to see how Lenovo measures success of this spinoff. Will it be looking at mindshare over profits?"

Lenovo's not the first Chinese company to try to spin off a more focused brand. Other tech giants such as Huawei and ZTE have also something similar -- Huawei's Honor and ZTE's Nubia comes to mind.

Given Lenovo's strong Asian roots and the fact that the new company's CEO, Chen, is well familiar with the region, it very well could be that Lenovo's new subsidiary will have its sights firmly set on Asia when it debuts next year.

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Cisco Chairman John Chambers Bullish On India

 Pinning hopes on the new NDA government, global tech major Cisco chairman John Chambers today said he is is quite bullish on India and expressed confidence that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will drive reforms and deliver.

"The change in government, I think Prime Minister Modi is going to be a great leader...I am extremely optimistic about this leadership change in India and the future of the country," he said at the Internet of Things (IoT) Conference here.

I see an openess to really make a difference, he said. The three-time Gujarat Chief Minister steered the BJP to a landslide victory in general elections, with the party winning an absolute majority in Parliament. It is the first time since 1984 that a single party has won a majority on its own.

Asked if there is perceived change in business confidence, he said, "most of the challenges that existed in India was self-inflicted. So I think you are going to see great economic opportunity and good environment for business if they execute right.

He expressed hope that India will accelerate growth to 7-8 per cent.

Among emerging markets, Chambers said he is betting most on India, adding, "I have been very public in my comments that emerging markets are going through some tough times."

Cisco has about 12,000 employees in India across cities like Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Hyderabad. Of these, 8,000 people are part of the R&D set up.

Although the company gets about 2 per cent of its over $48 billion global revenues from India, it is confident of this share growing.

It expects to garner 5 per cent of its revenues from the Indian market in the next five years with business targeted to grow over 20 per cent during the period.

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Micromax To Develop New Phones On Modified Android OS

 Home-bred handset maker Micromax Informatics plans to initially invest Rs 100 crore on services and innovation as it tries to move beyond the business of mobile phone hardware that has become more or less standardised. As part of the exercise, the Gurgaon-based company is developing a new set of smartphones on a forked version of the Android operating system, people privy to the development told ET.

The venture, code named Project Yureka, is likely to be formalised over the next two months, these people said. Part of the initial investment will go towards setting up research and development centres in Bangalore and Beijing, besides hiring top coding, programming and marketing talent.

"The processes are being formalised and it will take about two months for things to begin," said Micromax's co-founder Rahul Sharma. He did not say whether the company will create a separate wholly-owned unit for launching these set of devices, which may not have Google's stock Android operating system.

"We have a certain tailwind and we're moving in the right direction. I feel now that the hardware is fine but the next disruption has to happen on the software side where we will be empowering users," Sharma said without elaborating. Trade sources said Micromax could be in discussions with Cyanogen, the maker of Cyanogen-Mod, a modified version of Android that is a popular alternative OS and is installed on over 12 million devices worldwide.

Cyanogen did not respond to ET's queries seeking confirmation of its partnership plans with Micromax and its contours. Analysts tracking the burgeoning smartphone market in India said the next logical step for Micromax would be to look at services and innovation as the mobile handset space in India has become cluttered and highly competitive. Micromax has a 14 per cent share of overall devices in the country, second only to market leader Samsung with 17 per cent. It trails Samsung in the smartphone space as well with 18 per cent share compared with the Korean firm's 29 per cent share.

"Indian original equipment makers need some differentiation in their product strategy," said Jayanth Kolla, co-founder and partner at telecom research firm Convergence Catalyst.

"They have very little differentiation among them at the product level. So, building over the stock Android, modifying look and feel of the user interface can help offer a differentiated experience," Kolla added. Indian handset makers have followed the established model of sourcing mobile phones from China and selling them in India, replicated by a number of brands that have spawned since the likes of Micromax, Karbonn and Lava.

The three together hold 32 per cent of the smartphone market and some have already begun innovating. Lava launched the Hive user interface (UI) in August on Xolo 8X-100 smartphone model priced at Rs 13,999. The UI features customised elements including themes, launcher, widgets, customised system apps and direct connect with Xolo's software development team to offer feedback.

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Google Launches New Text Messaging Apps Competing Facebook Messenger

 Google is introducing a text-messaging app called "Messenger" with the launch of Android 5.0 Lollipop, the new version of its mobile operating system.

That, obviously, will be confusing because it has the same name as Facebook's existing messaging app, Messenger. Do not expect folks at Facebook to jump for joy at this news.

Facebook Messenger is a juggernaut: it's currently No.1 in the app store charts, according to App Annie. It has more than 200 million users, and that number will climb as Facebook requires its users to do their messaging separately inside Messenger instead of Facebook (the company's new policy). It's also a really good app.

Facebook also has another "messenger" app you may have heard of: Whatsapp Messenger. It's No.3 in the app store charts. It has more than 600 million users.

It gets even more confusing because Google already has a really good messaging app. If you're an Android user, you'll know that Google's Hangouts app is one of the best things about Android - chat messages from your Gmail account follow you automatically on your phone. It's seamless.

So it's not clear why Google wants people on a traditional SMS/MMS text messaging platform as well. Google told the 9to5Google blog:

Messenger and Hangouts offer users choice, each have their own benefits. Hangouts work great for cross platform (web, iOS, Android) and cross medium communications (video, voice,messaging, SMS). Messenger will be specially designed to be a quick and easy way to send and receive SMS and MMS messages on Android; more to come (Nexus 6 will come with both apps).

And just to be even more confusing, "Messenger" used to be called "Messaging," according to Phone Arena.

OK, so users will have choices. That's great. It would be easier to figure out those choices if the product names were a little more distinctive, though. Just a suggestion.

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AMD Cutting 7 Percent of Jobs After Poor Q3

 The 700 or so layoffs come a week after Lisa Su takes over as CEO of the world's second-largest chip maker.

Advanced Micro Devices' restructuring will continue, with executives saying Oct. 16 that the chip maker will cut about 700 jobs.

The announcement from President and CEO Lisa Su came a week after AMD surprised the industry when Rory Read, who had led the company for more than three years, stepped down, giving way to Su in an amicable transition.

It also came as executives showed disappointing third-quarter financial numbers for the world's second-largest chip maker. AMD reported revenue of $1.43 billion, a 2 percent drop from the same period last year, and net income of 17 million, less than the $43 million it earned in the third quarter in 2013.

The company's Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom group, which also includes server chips, saw revenues grow 21 percent year over year. AMD's semi-custom systems-on-a-chip (SoC) business had helped boost the company back to profitability over the past year when Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo used the chips in their latest-generation gaming consoles.

The unit earned $108 million during the quarter, driven in large part by the semi-custom business. 

During a conference call with analysts and journalists, Su said AMD had at least two more design wins in the works involving semi-custom chips that will hit in 2016. She declined to say who the customers are, but indicated they were in new industries and will bring in about $3 billion over three years.

"We are diversifying the semi-custom business beyond gaming," Su said.

However, the Computing and Graphics unit—which comprises desktop and notebook processors, discrete GPUs and professional graphics—saw revenues fall 16 percent over the third quarter of 2013, fueled by weak notebook processor and chipset sales, according to officials. The unit lost $17 million in the quarter. Su said AMD expected the PC market to continue to be stronger in the commercial segment.

"When we look at consumer, it's still choppy," she said.

Her comments came two days after Intel executives said the PC business helped drive an 8 percent increase in sales for the company in the third quarter. CEO Brian Krzanich said commercial PC sales were strong, but that the consumer business was improving. He also said Intel had gained share on AMD.

AMD's PC business is tightly tied to the consumer space, although Su said the company is making strides in the commercial market.

The job cuts are the latest round of layoffs at AMD over the past several years as the chip maker has looked to transform its business, targeting growth markets such as ultraportable clients, dense servers, the embedded space and the semi-custom business and hoping to reduce its reliance on the PC market.

During the conference call, Su said the goal was to get the workforce—which in the third quarter was 10,149—to a level that better reflects the smaller businesses at AMD. A key goal was protecting the engineering and R&D areas, which the CEO said were key to AMD's transformation. Most of the cuts will be on the operations side, she said.

The job cuts, which will be complete by the end of the year, will save AMD about $9 million this year and $85 million in 2015.

"We know what we need to do to improve performance going forward, and are taking actions," she said.

AMD has been undergoing the transformation since Read came to AMD from Lenovo in 2011, with Su following a year later. The executive team underwent changes in June, when AMD reorganized into two business units and Su was promoted from senior vice president and general manager of AMD's Global Business Units to COO.

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Former Google CEO: Here How To Build A $300 Billion Company

 To be successful in the technology-driven internet age, a company has to attract "smart creative" employees and then create an environment where they can thrive.

At least that's the argument that Google's Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg make in "How Google Works."

In the new book, executive chairman and former CEO Schmidt and former SVP of product Rosenberg outline what they learned while building Google into a company now worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

The duo created a fun, illustrated presentation to highlight the main principles of the book.

Google gave us permission to republish those slides here.

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