Diwali 2016: Here are some not-so-common but interesting gifts you can get this festive season

Image: Rushil Fernandes

By Videep Vijay Kumar /  17 Oct 2016 , 10:45

While it’s true that gifts come in all shapes and sizes (as well as in the form of intangible objects, and donations made in your name to charitable organisations), it’s easier to find something for someone when you understand the intended gift recipient. It’s even easier when you’re told exactly what to buy for someone. But if emotionally disconnected gifting (which is arguably one of the best ways to gift, of course) isn’t your thing, at least let us attempt to make you aware of things you probably didn’t know existed as gifting possibilities. A word of warning, though: most of this stuff will need to be plugged in somewhere.

Logitech Bluetooth Audio Receiver

Starting off with something on the wrong side of the “not so obvious” category is this nifty little piece of hardware from Logitech. While it’s true that everyone including Raju’s aunt has a stylish, cylindrical Bluetooth speaker these days, there are some of us (including yours truly), who simply forgot to invest in such advanced technology. The Logitech Bluetooth Audio Receiver is the perfect alternative.

Priced at a reasonable Rs 1,499 on Amazon India, this compact audio receiver unit plugs into any speaker system via Red-and-White RCA or 3.5mm cables. Multi-device Bluetooth pairing is another feature—easily stream audio from your

The future of enterprise technology is in the cloud

  17 Oct 2016 , 13:11

By Muqbil Ahmar

With the boom in startups and the number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) increasing exponentially, it’s time businesses start leveraging new-age technology. According to a recent report by Nasscom, the number of start-ups in India is the fourth highest in the world, at more than 3,100 start-ups. The report also predicts that the number is set to increase to 11,500 by 2020. However, start-ups have their own problems; more than 85 percent fall by the wayside. The government’s Digital India campaign is aimed at automating business processes, among other things so that running a business becomes simpler.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is one such tool that promises to remove the headache of enterprises as far as all the different operations are concerned since all the accounting, inventory tracking, record keeping and invoicing are tedious tasks. ERP allows an enterprise to use a system of integrated and interlinked applications to manage business operations and automate several back office functions. The software integrates all operations of a business including product planning, development, manufacturing, sales and marketing—and all in a single database, application and user interface. Thus, removing the hassle from the everyday running of a business and increasing their operational efficiency. From Financials, Inventory and Customer Service to Payroll, Recruitment and Projects, the ERP can take care of all aspects in the lifecycle of a large, small or medium enterprise.

Trends and Predictions in ERP
According to a report by Gartner, a global research firm, by 2018, at least 25 percent of new core financial application deployments in large enterprises will be public Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). Similarly, according to a survey conducted by Deskera, a cloud-based ERP provider in the South East Asia region, 67 percent SMEs think that problems of inventory management and invoicing can be tackled more efficiently with the help of an ERP. With rapid spread in the Internet and Cloud services coming within the reach of small enterprises, Software as a Service (SaaS) ERP will become increasingly cost-effective and easier to deploy, helping SMEs catch up with their bigger counterparts. Modern technologies such as ERP will no longer remain the bastion of big corporate; they will be accessible to most. Gartner has further predicted that, by 2018, at least 30 percent of service-centric companies will move the majority of their ERP applications to the Cloud.

“Longer term, over the next 10 years and more, we envision a scenario where more of the market ‘flips’ to the cloud. Instead of having on-premises core solutions that are complemented by innovation or differentiating processes being supported in the cloud, some organisations will move all their ERP functionality to the cloud,” said Nigel Rayner, research vice president at Gartner.

Get the ERP edge over your competitors
In this age of stiff competition and profit maximisation, the use of this software can give you an edge over your competitors. Additionally, businesses these days—particularly, the small and medium ones—have a lot of factors to contend with and that too on several fronts: disruptive technologies, changes in regulatory environment and consumer demands and competition from unforeseen quarters. Much of this change stems from the

China sends two astronauts on a month long space mission

Image Credit: REUTERS

  17 Oct 2016 , 11:41

China launched its longest manned space mission on Monday, sending two astronauts into orbit to spend a month aboard a space laboratory that is part of a broader plan to have a permanent manned space station in service around 2022. The Shenzhou 11 blasted off on a Long March rocket at 7:30 am (2330 GMT) from the remote launch site in Jiuquan, in the Gobi desert, in images carried live on state television.

The astronauts will dock with the Tiangong 2 space laboratory, or “Heavenly Palace 2”, which was sent into space last month. It will be the longest stay in space by Chinese astronauts, state media reported. Early on Monday, Fan Changlong, a vice chairman of China’s powerful Central Military Commission, met astronauts Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong and wished them well, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“You are going to travel in space to pursue the space dream of the Chinese nation,” Fan said. “With all the scientific and rigorous training, discreet preparation, and rich experience accumulated from previous missions, you will accomplish the glorious and tough task… We wish you success and look forward to your triumphant return.”

Shenzhou 11 is the third space voyage for Jing, who will command the mission and celebrate his 50th birthday in orbit. In a manned space mission in 2013, three Chinese astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with a space laboratory, the Tiangong 1. Advancing China’s space programme is a priority for Beijing, with President Xi Jinping calling for the country to establish itself as a space power.

China insists its space programme is for peaceful purposes. Shenzhou 11, whose name translates as “Divine Vessel”, will also carry three experiments designed by Hong Kong middle school students and selected in a science competition, including one that will take silk worms into space. The U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China’s increasing space capabilities, saying it was pursuing activities aimed at preventing other nations using space-based assets in a crisis.

China has been working to develop its space program for military, commercial and scientific purposes, but is still playing catch-up to established space powers the United States and Russia. China’s Jade Rabbit moon rover landed on the moon in late 2013 to great national fanfare, but soon suffered severe technical difficulties.

The rover and the Chang’e 3 probe that carried it there were the first “soft landing” on the moon since 1976. Both the United States and the Soviet Union had accomplished the feat earlier. China will launch a “core module” for its first space station some time around 2018, a senior official said in April, part of a plan for a permanent manned space station in service around 2022.

Reuters

Facebook is not making all your posts public, so everybody relax

Image Credit: Reuters

By tech2 News Staff /  17 Oct 2016 , 11:36

A copy paste campaign on Facebook has people posting a legal notice to prevent Facebook from making all their data publicly available. This is a hoax, and Facebook has reassured users that their data is private, owned by them, and they have control over who can access it. Even if Facebook were to make your data public, posting a legal notice in your timeline is not an effective counter measure against Facebook using your data in any such way. Snopes, a fact checking site that monitors rumours has an extensive page with details on this long lived hoax.

Facebook has put up a post in the FBfacts section of its site that clearly informs users thatusers are in control of the content they post on Facebook. Facebook has requested users not to believe the information in the copy and paste legal notice. Users can download and check all the information that Facebook holds about them, on their own. Users can track the information and connections being monitored by Facebook in the Activity Log, which is a list of all your posts and activity.

This round of rumours are circulating close on the heels of Facebook agreeing to sign a controversial treaty that allows Facebook to store information obtained from EU citizens on servers elsewhere. Some rumours and hoaxes keep circulating in waves and refuse to die. This particular hoax has been around for over four years.

Samsung Chromebook Pro leaks in all its metal glory; comes with 2K display and Pen Stylus

Image Credit: Samsung

By tech2 News Staff /  17 Oct 2016 , 10:27

New Chromebook models are just around the corner. Samsung has listed the latest model, Chromebook Pro, on its South Korean website. The latest Chromebook sports a 2K, 12.3-inch display with 3:2 aspect ratio along with effective resolution of 2400 x 1600.

Image Credit: Samsung

Samsung Chromebook comes with an all-aluminium design and a 360-degree hinge which effectively turns the device into a 2-in-1, allowing it to be used as an ultrabook as well as a large tablet. On the specs front, the Chromebook comes with a hexa-core processor with two Cortex-A72 and four Cortex-A53 cores, clocked at

Facebook signs controversial EU Privacy Shield treaty after Google and Microsoft

  17 Oct 2016 , 10:06

Social networking giant Facebook has agreed to adopt a new European Union (EU) data accord that allows personal information to be transferred to the US, potentially sparking yet another privacy row, the media reported. Facebook has quietly signed the Privacy Shield — a controversial treaty that allows US technology companies to transfer EU citizens’ details abroad. It will apply to certain advertising data and its new Workplace service for businesses, the Telegraph UK reported on Saturday.

Privacy Shield, a replacement deal that was designed to provide extra safeguards for Europeans, came into force in July. Google and Microsoft have already adopted the treaty. Facebook signed up at the end of September, although only two aspects of the social network use it. The first is Workplace, a special version of Facebook that allows company employees to communicate, which was launched last week. The other is its “Ads and Measurement” technology that uses customer data supplied by other companies to target adverts.

Other user data is not covered by the treaty, although it can be transferred to the US under secondary legal measures, the report said. “We have signed up two important parts of our business to the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework – Facebook at Work and our relevant Ads and Measurement services,” a Facebook spokesman confirmed the report.

Facebook’s adoption of the treaty is significant because the prior US-EU agreement, Safe Harbour which was abolished by the European Court of Justice as a direct result of legal action against the social network by privacy campaigners. However, it is likely to lead to further scrutiny of the Privacy Shield deal from Facebook’s critics, the report stated.

IANS

Google with its fact check feature will ensure it stays ahead of Facebook and Twitter

File photo of the Wikipedia homepage. Reuters

By Nash David /  17 Oct 2016 , 13:08

The world over, politics has a negative undertone. And given the universality of the Internet, it doesn’t take too long before you find yourself impacted and eventually part of an agitated debate. With the rise of social media including Facebook and Twitter, tech and politics are intertwined.

The rise of social media

Some of my close friends stay away from social media. If you meet them, you could have hours of political discourse. But they’d rather stay away from mediums such as Twitter or Facebook. They have a firm grasp of political realities, but they stay from interacting on social media because they prefer debating with like-minded individuals with a deep sense of understanding in politics, rather than swaying from blind-sighted idolising to caustic crosstalk.

India witnessed a very confrontational form of discussion on most social networks. The run up to the 2014 general elections caused a surge in this behaviour. Irrespective of which side of the political spectrum you’re on, you’d find an incessant chatter that gets even the undemanding highly stimulated.

Impact on ‘law and order’

There have been instances across India, where social media and the Internet at large have been accused of being a threat to ‘law and order’. From Kashmir to the Patidar reservationagitation, social media access has been clamped down for a brief period. Such is the influence social media wields.

Since emotions run high on social media discourses, banning access to the Internet is the first remedy to prevent escalation of passions. The hope is lesser conversations would result in lesser dissipation of information. And eventually curb mobs.

Image Credits: Reuters

The age of digital herds

For that matter, India and the US are no different. In India, the debate is between supporters of political parties. In the US, it’s between supporters of two presidential candidates. In both cases, the attacks get increasingly personal. In both cases, there are cases of photoshopped images going viral. There are creation of memes and the comic play of satire. Sometimes to touch sarcasm. Sometimes to lighten up the otherwise hostile online environment. As the US heads to its national elections in a month, there’s a similar outburst of emotions on social media in the United States.

Image: Reuters

Supporters of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump dig out records from the past to express their leaning and portray why their favourite candidate is