Cisco and Reliance Jio team-up to expand Jio’s existing multi-terabit capacity all-IP services platform

Image Credit: Cisco

By IANS /  28 Feb 2017 , 18:09

Reliance Jio has announced a collaboration with networking giant Cisco to further expand Jios existing multi-terabit capacity with the first All-IP converged network in India. With this network, Jio will offer a combination of high-speed data, mobile video, VoLTE, digital commerce, media, cloud and payment services, Cisco said in a statement.

It is the first network of its kind globally with the fastest growth to 100 million broadband and VoLTE customers, reaching the milestone within six months of launch. “As part of our journey in fulfilling the aspirations of the nation to be a key transformational agent in digital adoption and Leadership, Cisco has been a great partner for in building this highly scalable cloud centric All-IP Digital Services Network Platform meeting unprecedented data growth,” Mathew Oommen, President of Reliance Jio, said in a statement.

A result of co-innovation around product and services between the two companies, the Jio All-IP digital platform is built on Cisco’s Open Network Architecture and Cloud Scale Networking technologies featuring IP/MPLS, spanning areas, including data centre, Wi-Fi, security and contact centre solutions. “We share the vision with Reliance Jio for an open, programmable infrastructure to simplify, automate and virtualise core network functions in order to digitise faster,” Yvette Kanouff, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Service Provider Business at Cisco, added.

Jio has more than 300,000 km of fibre and built India’s largest cloud data centre to build platforms for applications and vertical solutions. Cisco is building the simplified, automated and virtualized network platform of the future on industry-leading software, systems, silicon and services. This enables service providers, media and web companies worldwide to reduce costs, speed time-to-market, secure their networks and sustain profitable growth.

Disclaimer: Reliance Jio is owned by Reliance Industries, who also own Network18, the publisher of Firstpost and tech2.

Old WhatsApp status makes a return as ‘WhatsApp Info’, ‘Revoke’ feature renamed to ‘Unsend’

Image: AFP

By Rehan Hooda /  28 Feb 2017 , 13:21

WhatsApp has faced a considerable amount of backlash and criticism from users ever since it rolled out the new ‘WhatsApp Status‘ feature. The company has been panned by users to copying Snapchat and Instagram and removing the old WhatsApp ‘Status’.

Keeping the customer feedback in mind, the company is planning to bring the old version of ‘Status’ back but one thing to note is that this does not mean that WhatsApp is removing the new Snapchat-like disappearing ‘Status’ update feature.

The ‘Info’ section is available as a hidden feature on the beta version of WhatsApp and has been introduced in the extended menu above the ‘Settings’ option on Android. Tapping that will bring the users to the all familiar ‘Status’ menu which has been renamed to ‘Info’.

The changes have been added to the ‘Profile’ section too and the ‘Info’ has been added back to the profile. One thing to note is that the company had previously renamed the Old status to ‘Tagline’ as reported by WABetaInfo. Another interesting thing is that the company seems to have rolled out the message ‘revoke’ feature that we previously reported.

WhatsApp developers have renamed the feature to ‘Unsend’ from the previous name of ‘Revoke’. This option is available in the three dot menu on the top right-hand centre when you long press to select a message. On tapping the ‘Unsend’ message, WhatsApp asks you to confirm if you want to ‘Unsend this message?’ On confirmation, the message that you sent turns to ‘This message was unsent’.

The feature is not enabled from WhatsApp servers so this does not reflect on the other side, but this points out that the feature is set to rollout for everyone in near future.

MWC 2017: Here is how you can play the iconic Nokia Snake game on Facebook Messenger

By Rehan Hooda /  27 Feb 2017 , 12:04

Nokia has announced the launch of the iconic and legendary Nokia Snake game for Facebook Messenger users. The game is an iconic and instant reminder at being one of the very first mobile games in the era of dumb phones which predated the colour-display mobile phones. Even though the company has announced the launch of Snake game in colour with the reborn Nokia 3310, users can play the Nokia Snake game in all its mono colour glory in the Facebook Messenger app.

One thing to note is that the game is not available for everyone because of the limited availability of Facebook Games. Facebook Messenger Games are only available in Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Great Britain, Canada, United States, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Latvia, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, France, Singapore, Finland, Hong Kong, Russian Federation, Estonia, Taiwan, Slovenia, Puerto Rico, Cyprus, Israel, Lithuania, Spain, and Italy at the time of writing. A wider rollout in other countries has not been announced but is expected to soon follow.

For the people who can play Facebook Games, go to the Facebook Messenger on your Android or iOS device and tap on the ‘Games’ button, you may have on ‘More’ button to get to the ‘Games’ tab but it will be on the list. After tapping on the ‘Games’ button, you will be greeted with a list of games available for you to play and you will find Nokia ‘Snake’ on the top of the list. The procedure is the same while using Facebook Messenger on your desktop.

If you still can’t wait to play the game, we have got you covered as you can access the ‘Snake’ game despite Facebook games not available for users in India. To do this, you need to ensure that Facebook Messenger App is updated. This procedure is tried and tested on Android smartphone devices.

After updating the Facebook Messenger app to the latest available version, clear the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’ for Facebook Messenger from the ‘Apps’ submenu from the Settings page of the smartphone. The option to clear the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’ will be available under the ‘Storage’ option in the ‘App info’ section of the app. After clearing the ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’, you need to install any free VPN app for example ‘Opera VPN‘ and set the location as ‘United States’ or ‘Canada’ in the VPN.

Once the location is set as ‘United States’ in the VPN app, head to Facebook Messenger and login using your account details. Once you login, you can now access the ‘Games’ option and head to the ‘Games’ section to play ‘Snake’ as mentioned above.

Read our complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017

MWC 2017: Nokia 3310 launch excitement ensures Dumbphones are still relevant in our high tech lives

Image: Nokia

  27 Feb 2017 , 10:02

Dumbphones – handsets that just make calls and send texts – were set to disappear as technology moved on, but they have survived in emerging markets and among nostalgics of simpler devices in the West.

Their continued appeal was underscored on Sunday in Barcelona on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest mobile expo, as Nokia unveiled a revamped version of its iconic 3310 model, more than a decade after it was phased out.

Dumbphones remain useful to telecom operators to “relaunch or accelerate” mobile phone use as they are relatively inexpensive, said Julien Miniconi, a telecoms expert at consulting firm Wavestone.

“It makes sense especially in countries where the network is not great,” he added.

Last year 1.5 billion smartphones were sold around the world, according to research firm Gartner.

But the dumbphone market is still significant, with nearly 400 million sold in 2016.

In certain emerging markets such as India, their sales still outstrip smartphones.

Basic phones accounted for over 55 percent of all mobiles sold the third quarter of 2016 in the world’s second most populous country, according to the International Data Corporation, a market research firm.

And dumbphone sales are continuing to rise in this major market by about four percent per year.

(Also Read: MWC 2017: The Nokia 3310 has officially been unveiled and it comes with Snake, in colour)

‘Deluge of emails’
Even in developed nations where the telecom market is mature, the phones continue to sell.

“Today they are niche markets, either for those looking for vintage or for those who are anti mobile internet or old people,” said Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Forrester, a research group.

Young kids also use them as a first phone. Some people use them as secondary phone to lend to visiting friends and family from another country and avoid roaming charges.

British actor Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar in 2015 for his role as scientist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, made headlines as he became the latest in a growing band of smartphone refuseniks.

“It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours. The deluge of emails was constant and I found myself trying to keep up in real time, at the expense of living in the moment,” the 35-year-old said of his decision to go back to a less sophisticated phone.

Within any age group, it’s not hard to find people who refuse to join the smartphone revolution.

“I have no interest in a smartphone – it’s expensive, fragile and I don’t see the use for it,” said Sandrine, 39, a Paris-based illustrator.

“There is also the whole commercial aspect as well, with the need to update phones all the time, without mentioning the opacity of work conditions in China” where many smartphones are made, she added.

(Also Read: MWC 2017: The Nokia 5 is a smaller version of the Nokia 6 and features a Snapdragon 430 with 2GB RAM)

‘Halo effect’
Germany’s Deutsche Telekom includes several basic phones in its catalogue to meet the needs of clients “who just want to be reachable”, said a spokeswoman for the operator.

Nokia’s original 3310 sold nearly 120 million units worldwide, making it one of the world’s best-selling mobiles, but it is unlikely the revamped version unveiled Sunday, which includes internet access, will post similar sales.

HMD Global, the Finnish start-up which bought the rights to the Nokia brand last year and is making the phones, is seeking publicity for the three other smartphones which it unveiled alongside the new 3310, said Forrester analyst Thomas Husson.

“It is a way to create a halo effect around the other models by reviving talk about the Nokia brand,” he said.

Ian Fogg, head of mobile at research firm IHS, said that HMD, as a start-up, “needs to leverage the warm memories (of the 3310) and show that they are innovating too. They don’t want to be seen as a heritage brand.”

AFP

Read our complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017.

MWC 2017: Meizu Super mCharge third gen fast-charging solution announced; claims full charge in 20 mins

By tech2 News Staff /  28 Feb 2017 , 16:08

Chinese smartphone maker Meizu has announced the third generation of its fast charging technology called Super mCharge at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Super mCharge uses a high-voltage direct charge method, which charges smartphone batteries at a quicker rate.

According to Meizu, its 11V/5A charging connector can provide a whopping 55W maximum power for accelerated charge timings of just 20 mins. The battery capacity Meizu is talking about is 3000 mAh. Oppo had shown off its Super VOOC fast charging technology at MWC 2016 which showed a 2500mAh battery sporting phone being fully charged in 15 mins flat.

Super mCharge technology uses Charge Pump Principle. This applies two groups of conversion circuits to directly output half of the voltage. According to Meizu, this increases the charging efficiency to 98 percent and ensures stable charging performance. The top temperature reached while using Super mCharge is 39 degrees C.

The data cable associated with the Super mCharge connector can support up to 160W, so as to ensure safety and durability while charging.

According to Meizu’s testing, a 3000mAh ATL battery is able to retain over 80 percent of the capacity even after 800 charge and discharge cycles, which ensures that the battery runs for over two years.

Speaking at the launch, Li Tao, supervisor of Meizu’s R&D team said, “Innovation isn’t an easy job, but we believe that success comes from passion. We’ve overcome numerous difficulties and obstacles to create the best technology for all.”

Read our complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017

A billion hours of video content is consumed daily by YouTube users, says company VP

Image: Reuters

  28 Feb 2017 , 14:26

YouTube on Monday said that a billion hours of video is being watched daily at the Google-owned online viewing venue in “big milestone” for the service.

“Let’s put that in perspective,” YouTube vice president of engineering Cristos Goodrow said in an online post announcing the achievement.

“If you were to sit and watch a billion hours of YouTube, it would take you over 100,000 years.”

Online video consumption has been soaring, with Google, Facebook, Twitter and other Internet firms working to increase audiences along with their cuts of advertising dollars typically devoted to television.

YouTube early in February began letting popular online video personalities broadcast on the go using mobile devices, ramping up a challenge to Facebook and Twitter in the live-streaming arena.

Google-owned YouTube has supported live streaming of video through computers for about six years, even broadcasting US presidential debates online.

Leading social network Facebook and one-to-many messaging service Twitter have already added such capabilities to their mobile applications.

Google parent Alphabet in January reported that its profit in the final three months of last year climbed on growth in mobile search and video-sharing service YouTube.

AFP

Microsoft Windows 10: ‘Second update’, Focused inbox and mentions come to Mail app

Terry Myerson, Microsoft. Image Credit: Reuters

By tech2 News Staff /  28 Feb 2017 , 12:36

Microsoft has been working on the next update to its operating system Windows 10, ever since the announcement last year at the launch of Microsoft Surface Studio. The next version of Windows as previously reported is dubbed as Microsoft Creators Update. This update comes right after the launch of Anniversary Update in August last year.

But interestingly, the company shared some details about the version that will come after Creators Update. The second update has not been given an official name but it is being labelled as “Second Update in 2017” as reported by Forbes. The details were revealed when noted developer Rafael Rivera took a screenshot of the upgrade timelines during the announcement made by Microsoft during Ignite Australia earlier this month.

 Follow

Rafael Rivera 

✔@WithinRafael

Windows 10 release lifecycle, cadence pic.twitter.com/NxSB9wE2PY

1:49 AM - 21 Feb 2017

 
•  2121 Retweets
 
•  2424 likes

There were no official details on the features that will come with the second update, but we can expect the radical redesign of the UI termed as “Project NEON” to come with the second update. One important thing that the report hinted at was the arrival of ‘Windows Cloud’.

Windows Cloud is pegged to compete with Chrome OS where it will be preloaded on devices without any cost. It will spiritually succeed Windows RT as it will only run Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. Another report pointed out that the OS will run win32 apps but only if those apps were sourced from Windows Store.

In addition to Windows Cloud, the second update will come with a suspected ‘People Bar’ that was delayed from Creators update according to Thurrott. One thing to note is that the Creators update will come with a new feature which will allow Samsung users to unlock Windows 10 devices using Samsung Flow.

View image on Twitter

 Follow

Tom Hounsell @tomhounsell

For anyone who cares, here's the full concept image that was in the background of #Microsoft's "Sneak Peak" of #Windows10#ProjectNEON

12:33 PM - 9 Feb 2017

 
•  291291 Retweets
 
•  465465 likes

Microsoft also rolled out updates for it UWP Mail and Calendar apps where the Mail app will finally get the Focused Inbox feature that is already present on its iOS and Android apps. Mail app gains another feature that will allow users to ‘mention’ other email users. The feature works like ‘tagging’ or ‘mention’ works on other platforms like Facebook where you use ‘@’ symbol in an email and tag a name.

Once you tag a person, their name is highlighted in the message in blue helping them quickly see that they have been asked to take some action in the email according to the set context. Tagging automatically adds the person in the ‘To’ field if they have not already been added.

Calendar app gains coloured categories which will allow the users to quickly categorise events in a number of colours. Microsoft has also added ‘Interesting Calendars’ to the app which allows users to easily and quickly import calendars that take the data from Bing. Some examples of these calendars can be to keep a tab on your favourite TV shows, sports teams or movies.

The company will expand features from different regions and interest groups to this feature. Last but not the least, the app gains the ability to show you details about your travel reservations and package delivery details from the overview area.

This will help people quickly check the details of the travel reservation or delivery details without hunting for the email in the focused inbox or the other inbox, enabling users to quickly check in for lights or change hotels or rental car reservations from the calendar app.

MWC 2017: MediaTek Helio X30 detailed; features CorePilot 4.0, ClearZoom and more

By tech2 News Staff /  28 Feb 2017 , 12:17

At the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2017 (MWC) in Barcelona, MediaTek made an announcement about its top-of-the-line chipset called the Helio X30. While the MediaTek Helio X30 was announced last year in August, the Taiwanese chipmaker announced some additional details about the chipset including availability of the same in handsets.

The Helio X30 is built by TSMC on 10nm FinFET process, which is down from the 20nm process that was used for the Helio X20. This should bring with it significant power savings as the current Android flagships are still on the 14nm / 16nm process whereas the Apple iPhone is expected to come with a 10nm chipset next year.

As you may already know by now, it is a deca-core chipset. You get a 64-bit deca-core CPU featuring a 64-bit deca-core Tri-Cluster setup which is something new for both the company and its clients.

Assisting all those cores is CorePilot 4.0, which delivers 25 percent more power saving than the previous version.

The chipset also packs in a 14-bit ISP that supports two 16MP camera. There’s ClearZoom and Total Noise Reduction, new technologies that are said to deliver superior image quality.

There’s also a new Vision Processing Unit (VPU) that will be present to ease the load from the CPU and GPU.

You get support for UFS 2.1 storage, and the chip can handle up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM clocked at 1,866MHz.

“Just like your heart automatically reacts to numerous tasks your body is doing, CorePilot 4.0 automatically directs power where and when it’s needed to maintain efficiency. Consumers today demand extreme performance from their smartphones, on top of a long battery life. CorePilot 4.0 perfectly balances power and efficiency, and adapts to users’ computing patterns to manage power consumption,” Jeffrey Ju, executive vice president and Co-COO of MediaTek said in a statement.

The new chipset will ship in handsets starting from the second half of this year, which is around June and July.

Complete coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2017 can be found here.