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Google joins Microsoft, IBM and Amazon to control computing through public clouds    Google already runs much of the digital lives of consumers through email, Internet searches   and YouTube videos. Now it wants the corporations, too. The search giant has for years been evasive about its plans for a so-called public cloud of computers and data storage that is rented to individuals and businesses. On Tuesday, however, it will announce pricing, features and performance guarantees aimed at companies ranging from startups to multinationals. It is the latest salvo in an escalating battle among some of the most influential companies in technology to control corporate and government computing through public clouds. That battle, which is expected to last years and cost the competitors billions of dollars annually in material and talent, already includes Microsoft, IBM and Amazon. As businesses move from owning thei

Amazon's drone delivery: Logistics will be dizzying, do we really need it?   The novelty of flying cars never materialized. But flying novels are right around the corner. If you aren't nervous enough reading about 3-D printers spitting out handguns or Google robots with Android phones, imagine the skies thick with crisscrossing tiny drones. "I know this looks like science fiction; it's not," Jeff Bezos told Charlie Rose on "60 Minutes" Sunday, unveiling his octocopter drones. The Amazon founder is optimistic that the fleet of miniature robot helicopters clutching plastic containers will be ready to follow GPS coordinates within a radius of 10 miles and zip around the country providing half-hour delivery of packages of up to 5 pounds - 86 per cent of Amazon's stock - just as soon as the FAA approves. "Wow!" Rose said, absorbing the wackiness of it all. The futuristic Pony Express to deliver pony-print coats and other Amazo

Edward Snowden sharpened his hacking skills in Delhi   The hacker who shook the US intelligence machinery and had world leaders railing against Washington for spying on them picked up crucial skills in India. Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor-turned-whistleblower, spent a week in New Delhi training in core Java programming and advanced ethical hacking. It's this training that got him certified as an EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA). Now hiding in Russia as a fugitive from US law and charged with espionage for leaking documents related to the US surveillance, Snowden trained at offshore IT training and certification provider Koenig Solutions in Moti Nagar, New Delhi in 2010. He flew into India on September 3 from Japan and left for the US on September 9. The Registration of Foreigners Rule 1939 Form C Hotel Arrival report, a copy of which is with TOI, shows Snowden checked into Koenig Inn run by the institute in Karol Bagh at 2.3

Google takes on Amazon by cutting cloud service prices Google Inc will lower prices on cloud services as the search giant gears up to take on Amazon.com Inc, International Business Machines Corp and Microsoft Corp in the fast-growing market of Internet services for corporations. In a Monday blogpost, Google outlined key features and pricing for "Compute Engine," part of a broader service that vies with Amazon's AWS in providing storage and computing power to corporate clients as inhouse datacenters are gradually phased out.

Info Edge invests Rs 10 cr more in Applect    Info Edge, which runs online portals naukri.com and jeevansaathi.com, today said it has invested Rs 10 crore in online education and assessment firm Applect Learning Systems. The additional investment of Rs 10 crore by Info Edge was made through website www.meritnation.com, Info Edge said in a filing with the BSE. Post this investment, Info Edge's total investment in Applect stands at Rs 71.5 crore. Info Edge now holds 55.81 per cent stake on a fully diluted and converted basis in Applect, it said. It had previously invested Rs 61.5 crore in MeritNation, including Rs 30 crore in February this year, Rs 20 crore in September 2011, Rs 5 crore in May 2010 and Rs 6.5 crore round in July 2008. In February this year, Info Edge had invested Rs 30 crore in Applect, while in 2011, it had invested about Rs 20 crore through a mix of equity and convertible preference shares.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is world's wealthiest bachelor With an estimated personal fortune of $15.3 billion, 60-year old Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is the world's wealthiest bachelor, followed by 79-year old Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani who has a net worth of $10.9 billion, says a report. According to the Wealth-X, a global wealth intelligence and prospecting company, 48-year old Mikhail Prokhorov, owner of an American basketball team, Brooklyn Nets is the world's third wealthiest bachelor.

Apple charges Indians the most for iPhone 5S It is not a secret that Apple gadgets cost a fortune in India, where even the base variant of the iPhone 5S costs over half-a-lakh rupees. Now, a study has shown that Indians end up paying the most for the Apple smartphone - across the world! According to data compiled by technology website Mobiles Unlocked, the iPhone 5S costs the Indians the most globally when compared with their purchasing power. In fact, buyers here have to shell out 22.3% of the national gross domestic product per capita (GDP PPP). The GDP PPP is a means of measuring how much each person earns in a country. This means that Indian buyers shell out over 22.3% of their disposable incomes if they purchase the iPhone 5S. China, another emerging country and Apple's fastest-growing market, stands fifth in the list and there it acosts buyers less than 10% of their purchasing power. The study details the countries w

Facebook replaces "Hide All" button with "Unfollow"   Facebook Inc (FB.O) has replaced its "Hide All" button with the more succinct "Unfollow," letting users block all messages and posts from selected friends. As with the previous button, it gives users the option of blocking content from certain people without offending them, say through de-friending. The latter alternative severs ties with that person on the social network, without notifying them. "This means you are still friends, but updates from that person won't appear in your News Feed. The goal of this change is to help people curate their newsfeed and see more of the content that they care about," Facebook said in an email. The world's largest social network is constantly tweaking its newsfeed - the main page users look at on the network - often by reducing clutter, especially from advertising, and bringing to the surf

Apple may offer buyback schemes for iPads  Apple will sell its two new tablet models — iPad Air and iPad mini with retina display — in India for Rs 35,900 and Rs 28,900, respectively, starting December 7, the company's distributor Ingram Micro said. A senior executive with an Apple trade partner in India said the US major has plans to run promotional activities around the new iPad models in India, including buyback schemes on old iPads and tablets, cash-back offer and EMI schemes, following the success of a similar strategy adopted for the iPhone in the country, the world's fastest growing market for smartphones. As part of its moves to gain market share, Apple could announce a "price cut on the older iPad mini model in the sub-Rs 20,000 segment to drive volume," retail chain PlanetM chief eecutive Sanjay Karwa said. Another senior executive who also works at an Apple trade partner said the strateg

Black Friday online sales rise 39%: Adobe Online US shopping for Black Friday deals soared to $3 billion during a two-day period beginning Thursday, with tablets and cell phones as top must-have items, estimates showed. Online purchases reached $1.93 billion on Friday itself, the unofficial start of the retail sector's holiday season. That marked a 39% increase over 2012, according to software maker Adobe, which analyzed 400 million visits on some 2,000 American shopping websites. Holiday shopping traditionally accounts for 20 to 40 percent of an individual retailer's annual sales, according to the National Retail Federation. Early online Black Friday sales reached $1.06 billion, up 18% from last year, according to Adobe. Technology giant IBM also reported increased numbers in overall online sales as it looked at 800 merchant websites. IBM said internet sales jumped 19.7% over last year on Thanksgi

Deutsche Telekom to cut 6,000 jobs in IT arm German telecoms giant Deutsche Telekom is planning to axe 4,000-6,000 jobs in a radical shake-up of its IT services subsidiary, T-Systems, business daily Handelsblatt reported on Monday. Quoting company sources, the newspaper said that the unit's designated chief Thimotheus Hoettges will present the planned cuts to Deutsche Telekom's supervisory board on December 12. The jobs would be cut over the next three years.T-Systems employs a total workforce of 29,000 in Germany.

iPad Air, Retina iPad mini coming to India on Dec 7 After a wait of over a month,Apple has released the launch date of its iPad Airand iPad mini with Retina Display for the Indian market. Both the new tablets will be launched in India on December 7. While the 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad mini with Retina display has been priced at Rs 28,900, its corresponding iPad Air model comes with a price tag of Rs 35,900. The company has not announced the prices of the 32, 64 and 128GB variants as well as the 4G-enabled models of the two tablets as of now. iPad Air is 20% thinner, 28% lighter and has 43% smaller bezels than last year's iPad 4. The tablet features a 9.7-inch Retina display and resembles iPad mini a lot. It is 7.5mm thick and weighs 1 pound; Apple claims it is the thinnest full-sized tablet in the world. The new iPad model uses the same 64-bit A7 chip and the M7 motion co-processor that was introduced r

Sailfish OS to be available for Android devices   Android users, you may be able to use the Meego-inspired Sailfish OS on your devices. Jolla, the company behind the new Sailfish mobile operating system, is planning to give users the option to load its Sailfish OS on Android devices. The company already allows Android apps to be installed on its smartphones. In an interview with Finnish website Talouselama, Jolla CEO Tomi Pienimaki said that users will be able to sideload Sailfish on their Android phones and tablets. Pienimaki stated in the interview: "About half of the smartphone buyers are upgrading their older or cheaper devices with a better version of Android. For us it is a possibility to distribute our operating system especially in China. There are websites that already distribute [OS] software and the Chinese customers are doing it - so we don't have to teach them. We just have to get Sailfish to those website

Facebook in talks to buy Indian company Facebook seems all set to make its first Indian acquisition. The social media giant is in talks to buy Bangalore-based product start-up Little Eye Labs, according to a news report in Business Standard. Founded in May 2012, Little Eye Labs develops a mobile app crash testing service. "Performance analysis and diagnostic tool for Androiddevelopers, providing insights into battery, data, memory and more," is how the company describes itself on its Twitter account. Little Eye Labs team comprises Kumar Rangarajan, Satyam Kandula, Lakshman Kakkirala, Giridhar Murthy, Aditya Kulkarni, Gaurav Lochan, Satheesh Anbalagan and Srikant Sahay. Earlier this year, the company received funding between $100,000 and $20,000 from early-stage start-up incubator GSF Accelerator. The Indian Software Product Industry Round Table iSpirit is said to be facilitating the deal. iSPIRT is widely seen as a p

Instagram working on messenger service After speculations about the photo-sharing service Instagram working on its own messenger, there appears a possibility that it could be eyeing an exclusive email addresses. Sources said that Instagram could be working on the @instagram.com email addresses, akin to Facebook. According to TechCrunch, the emails were discovered while database population by an e-commerce company about social networking sites and the source revealed that the Instagram addresses were never seen before. Having Instagram email address can make the speculated messaging service even better withInstachat, InstaMessage and InstaDM apps letting users send direct messages to other users. Giving users the Instagram network native email addresses could make the process of sending directly to individuals more seamless and integrated to the bigger platform, the report added.

Spice launches Smart Flo Mettle 5X at Rs 6,499    Spice Retail has launched the Smart Flo Mettle 5X budget smartphone in India. This device has a 5-inch screen and comes preloaded with BBM, four launcher apps and eight unique unlock options. The manufacturer has priced this dual sim (2G+2G) smartphone at Rs 6,499 and will sell it via online retailer HomeShop18. The Smart Flo Mettle 5X is powered by a 1.3GHz dual-core processor with 512MB RAM and runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) operating system. It comes with 4GB internal storage and supports microSD expansion up to 32GB. It sports an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and 1.3MP front-facing camera. It is powered by a 1,800mAh battery that offer talk time of four hours. While the Smart Flo Mettle 5X is made of plastic, part of its rear panel is made using metal. Some of the software features of the phone include flip-to-mute, power saver and voice unlocking. TM Ram

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9 price slashed in India   Online retail giant Amazon has slashed the prices of its Kindle Fire HD 8.9 tablet in India. This price cut comes on the day that Apple announced that launch date and prices of its new iPads for the Indian market. Kindle Fire HD 8.9's 16GB variant now carries a price tag of Rs 17,999, down Rs 4,000 from its launch price of Rs 21,999. Similarly, its 32GB model has got a price cut of Rs 4,000 and is now available for Rs 25,999. The two models had been available at these prices on Amazon's website as part of its Diwali discount offer. Kindle Fire HD 8.9 has an 8.9-inch screen with 1920x1200p resolution and 254ppi pixel density. It runs on a customized version of Android operating system, with no access to Google Play; buyers can download apps from Amazon's own app marketplace on the tablet. The tablet is powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz processor with 1GB RAM and comes with connectivity options like Wi-Fi, Blue

New smart watch lets parents track their child's location A new GPS-enabled smart watch that allows parents to track their kids' location and send them texts has been developed in the US. The FiLIP watch, designed for children aged 4 to 11, is hooked up to an app on a parent's phone. Using the FiLIP app, parents and other pre-authorised adults can track the child's location, make calls, send texts and set "SafeZones," which are virtual radii around a specific destination, 'Mashable' reported. Parents select SafeZones based on the location where their child usually spends the most time, such as school. FiLIP sends a notification to parents whenever their child leaves or arrives at a SafeZone. Parents can programme up to five numbers into the gadget, which kids can call with the touchof a button. In case of emergency, the child can hold down a red button, prompting the watch to call

Hackers targeting PNB customers Cybercriminals tried to steal passwords of corporate and individual customers of Punjab National Bank (PNB) last week, global cybersecurity firm Websense said. California-based Websense, which provides protection against cyberattacks and data theft, said it was able to block the intrusion, which involved a phishing attack. Phishing involves sending emails purporting to be from reputable firms to unsuspecting individuals and also corporate entities to induce then in revealing personal and financial information like passwords, credit card numbers etc. "Last week, Websense Security Labs came across a phishing email targeting PNB customers. The phishing attack was aimed to obtain password of corporate and individual customers," Websense regional director India, Surendra Singh told PTI. PNB is not the client of the company, but these phishing mails were sent to several individuals and some c