Samsung develops world's first 4GB RAM for phones

With 64-bit computing touted as the next step for chipset evolution in smartphones and tablets, Samsung has readied the world's first 4GB RAM meant for mobile devices. Currently, the highest RAM configuration for handheld devices is 3GB, that too only in Samsung's Galaxy Note 3 phablet and Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 edition) tablet. 

On the official Samsung Tomorrow blog, the company said that it has developed the developed the industry's first 8Gb (or 1GB) low power double data rate 4 (LPDDR4), mobile DRAM. 

"The 8Gb LPDDR4 is fabricated on 20nm class process technology, and offers 1GB on a single die, which is the largest density available for DRAM components today. With four of the 8Gb chips, a single 4GB LPDDR4 package can provide the highest level of performance available today," the post said. 

The new DDR4 mobile RAM will offer 50% higher performance than today's DDR3 memory chips, and still consume 40% less battery. Other benefits of this new memory chip include faster and more responsive applications, more advanced features and higher resolution displays. 

According to Samsung, the new 8Gb LPDDR4 uses a Low Voltage Swing Terminated Logic (LVSTL) I/O interface. Based on this new interface, the LPDDR4 chip will enable a data transfer rate per pin of 3,200Mbps, which is twice that of the 20nm-class LPDDR3 DRAM now in mass production 

"This next-generation LPDDR4 DRAM will contribute significantly to faster growth of the global mobile DRAM market, which will soon comprise the largest share of the entire DRAM market," said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing, Samsung Electronics. 

Samsung is expected to unveil its first smartphone with 64-bit processor this year, most likely the Galaxy S5. The desktop-class 64-bit CPU architecture requires at least 4GB RAM to process resource-consuming tasks. However, there are no apps in Android, Windows Phone or Apple's iOS ecosystems that require such computing power. 

Apple has already introduced the world's first mobile processor with 64-bit architecture. However, it does not have much real-world usage since all iOS apps are developed for 32-bit chips and iPhones and iPads do not offer less than 4GB RAM (though Apple does not reveal the amount of RAM its gadgets offer, external sources have revealed that iPhone 5S has 1GB RAM after a teardown).

HP to cut 5,000 more jobs

Tough times seem ahead for Hewlett Packard (HP) employees. The company is set to cut more jobs in the coming year, as part of its global turnaround plan. 

In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, HP has revealed that it plans to lay off 5,000 more people in addition to the 29,000 it had originally planned. The company has blamed market and business pressures for the increase in the estimated job cuts. In May 2012, the company had initially announced that it planned to cut 27,000 jobs in May 2012, increasing the figure to 29,000 in September 2012. 

"Due to continued market and business pressures, as of October 31, 2013, HP expects to eliminate an additional 15% of those 29,000 positions, or a total of approximately 34,000 positions, and to record an additional 15% of that $3.6 billion in total costs, or approximately $4.1 billion in aggregate charges," HP said in its annual report. "HP expects to record these charges through the end of HP's 2014 fiscal year as the accounting recognition." 

HP expects to complete the job cuts by October 2014. The company has 3,31,800 employees, globally.

What to expect from tech in 2014

This time last year, we spoke about how 2013 will see increased personalization of IT and mobile devices like smartphones. That did happen, but it also led to privacy walls being breached. In the coming year, thanks to Edward Snowden's revelations, people will be more conscious about privacy, and will take care to protect information stored on their devices and ensure their online behavior remains confidential. 

Michael Joseph, manager, systems engineering, Saarc, Fortinet, says home automation devices that control electrical consumption, temperature of fridges, etc could become new targets. 

Security fears notwithstanding, we will be more dependent on technology. Devices like Google Glass and smart watches will get better. Person to person, person to machine, and machine to machine interactions will increase. 

Sunil Lalvani, MD, BlackBerry, India, feels technologies like NFC and M2M will move to the next level driven by smartphones. S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, says people will use at least three connected devices for their diverse needs like editing, watching videos or simply connecting with friends. 

Phillip Beniac, regional VP, Qlik-Tech, Asia Pacific and Japan, sees the emergence of touch as a shift from consumerization to humanization of IT. "Touch technologies encourage interactivity in surprising ways - people simply enjoy working with touch and appear to be more willing to explore with a tactile interface than with a mouse-driven environment." 

Television revolution

High definition and ultra-high definition technologies will be more affordable, presenting us with exciting opportunities for new video experiences not seen before. According to Cisco, video technology in ultra-high definition will become imperative for smartphones , augmented reality glasses, tablets and other devices equipped with camera. 

Manoj Padmanabhan, business head, new media, Zee Entertainment, says 2014 will see a sharp upswing in the number of users consuming video and TV on-the-go . "With smartphones offering bigger screens and better audio /video outputs, live TV has already caught the attention of the youth in a big way. Further, players like Ditto TV are available across all OS and devices giving the youth multiple access points." He says there is a possibility of content providers tailoring content only for mobile TV in the near future. 

Big data and analytics

With increasing ease of collecting data, analytics will boom. According to Anand Ramakrishnan, business head, HCL Services, "Real-time access to multi-structured data improves decision making and enables businesses to be more agile to market conditions. They will have to leverage social networking , cloud services, analytics and mobility." 

Gaurav Vohra, founder of business analytics school Jigsaw Academy, feels more businesses will leverage social media to connect to customers. "Techniques like text analytics and sentiment analysis will gain credence," he says. 

Enterprise app stores

Due to increasing penetration of mobile devices at the workplace, users expect enterprises to provide the capability, flexibility and power they get in the consumer world. "This is likely to lead to organizations setting up app stores of their own, referred to as enterprise app store where an employee can go and get access to all the applications required to perform a business task/activity," says Sanjay Deshmukh, area VP, India subcontinent , Citrix.

LinkedIn, Pinterest more popular than Twitter: Study

More US adults use LinkedIn and Pinterest than Twitter, but that website attracts a greater proportion of blacks and young adults than do its social media peers, a Pew Research Center study released on Monday showed. 

Photo pin-up site Pinterest spiked in popularity over the past year, according to the survey, a poll of 1,445 Internet users aged 18 and older. About 21 per cent of respondents said they employ the service, up sharply from 15 per cent in a similar survey conducted a year ago. 

The figure was 22 per cent for LinkedIn and 18 per cent for Twitter, holding roughly steady from a year ago. About 29 per cent of the blacks surveyed by Pew made use of Twitter, well above 16 per cent for whites and Hispanics, the study showed. () 

Twitter ranks higher than Pinterest in terms of engagement, however: 46 per cent of users surveyed go onto the online messaging service daily, versus 23 per cent for Pinterest and just 13 per cent for LinkedIn. 

Industry experts have said Twitter is less intuitive than Facebook and thus can turn off users, curtailing its growth as a mainstream social media platform. 

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October, 36 per cent of 1,067 people who have joined Twitter say they do not use it, and 7 per cent say they have shut their account. In contrast, only 7 per cent of 2,449 Facebook members report not using the online social network, and 5 per cent say they have shut down their account. 

The Pew study polled users of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest - five of the largest US social media services. 

About 71 per cent of respondents said they used Facebook , up from 67 per cent a year earlier and granting it the highest popularity ranking. But some analysts speculate that younger users are gravitating away from Facebook, the world's largest social network, and toward newer services such as SnapChat or Instagram. 

"Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, but a striking number of users are now diversifying onto other platforms," the Pew study read. 

"Pinterest holds particular appeal to female users (women are four times as likely as men to be Pinterest users), and LinkedIn is especially popular among college graduates and Internet users in higher-income households."

5 things tech made better in 2013

By Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology editor, AP

NEW YORK: As I look back at the more than 100 tech products we reviewed in 2013, a handful of gadgets and services deserve a second look. 

It's become clear that one brand rarely stands out any more in whatever product category you look at. Competition is more intense than ever, which means consumers have more choices than ever. That's why coming up with a "best of" list for 2013 proved difficult. 

So instead of a comprehensive list, I'm highlighting five big trends. These are also areas where further innovations are likely in 2014, so stay tuned. 

Better camera phones

This was the first year I didn't mind leaving my point-and-shoot and full-bodied, SLR cameras at home. Camera phones have gotten good enough to stand in for those stand-alone cameras in many situations.

Of the ones I tried, Apple's iPhone 5S proved to be the best as an all-around camera. It's good at getting the auto-focus right, even for moving objects. A larger sensor and an improved flash compared with previous models mean better shots in low light. 

An honorable mention goes to Nokia's Lumia 1020. It's consistently good at night and indoor shots. It combines the small amount of light from multiple pixels into one, resulting in better lighting. It also has manual controls typically absent from camera phones. 

Given how frequently people use their phones to take photos, expect even more improvements in the coming year. 

Personalized technical support

It used to be when you couldn't figure out how a product worked, you called your tech-savvy children. With Mayday on Amazon's new Kindle Fire HDX tablets, you no longer need to do that. Instead, just tap the Mayday button, and you'll be connected to a live customer service representative within seconds, even at 4 a.m. on a weekend. 

Amazon's representatives can help you install apps, connect to Facebook or tackle anything else confounding you. You see them on the screen, but they can only hear you. They have a virtual orange marker to point you to buttons and menus on the screen. They also can take over your machine remotely and do it for you. 

As gadgets do more, they also get more complicated to use. As someone who's constantly asked by friends and family for tech assistance, the Mayday feature is something I would welcome in other products. 

Shackle-free phone plans

The traditional way of buying phones: Pay $100 or $200 for a phone, and stay locked to your wireless carrier for two more years. 

The new way: Buy or bring your own phone. Leave any time. 

T-Mobile introduced that concept in March when it split the monthly phone bill into two parts -- one for the device, and the other for the voice, text and data services. If you already have a device or have finished paying for it, your overall bill goes down. If you need a phone, you pay its full retail price, spread out into monthly installments. You're no longer getting a subsidy for signing a contract, but you're also not paying for it through a higher phone bill. 

A few months later, T-Mobile introduced a program that lets you upgrade your phone up to twice a year, rather than every other year. The other national carriers followed with their own contract-free, frequent-upgrade plans. AT&T also lowered its service fees for voice, text and data for those who pay for phones separately. Sprint reduced those fees as well, but only temporarily. 

Some people will still find it more cost-effective to buy phones the traditional way, but these contract-free options give consumers more freedom to leave their carrier or change phones frequently. 

Meanwhile, some phone makers have come out with cheaper phones that do almost as much as the $600-plus ones. Motorola's Moto G phone is particularly notable, at just $179 _ ideal when you pay for your own phone. 

Laptops with long-lasting batteries

Most laptop owners no doubt have found themselves out of juice at the most inopportune times, whether in the middle of an important business meeting or the start of a super-long flight to Asia or Australia. 

A new generation of processing chips from Intel makes that far less likely to happen. These chips, known as Haswell, are more efficient at using power. It's now possible to go a full waking day on a single charge, with some reasonable breaks for meals and exercise. 

The 13-inch (33-centimeter) MacBook Air, for instance, promises up to 12 hours of battery life. I was able to stretch that to more than 14 hours by turning off Wi-Fi, though nine to 11 hours was more common with general Web surfing. On the Windows 8 machines I tested, I was able to get seven to nine hours consistently. 

Expect to pay at least $1,000 for a Haswell laptop, though prices may start coming down in the new year. 

Internet television

A few friends and I dropped cable TV service this year. I saved more than $100 a month and used some of that to buy a new TV. You might be wondering: Huh? 

Several options are now available for watching television over the Internet. Watching on a computer or a tablet seems unsatisfactory. 

With a streaming device such as Roku, Apple TV or Chromecast or a game console such as the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One, you can project Internet video to the big screen. You'll need to subscribe to a handful of services such as Netflix or Hulu Plus. 

The downside is you often need to wait at least a day for shows to become available online. That means avoiding spoilers on social networks. It's also a poor option for live sports. Major League Baseball has a great online service, but typically blocks hometown teams. 

But it's money saved to buy the hot gadgets of 2014 -- or tickets to a ballgame, plus beer and hot dogs.

HCL Lucknow campus to create 25,000 jobs

Technology group HCL said it will set up a 100-acre IT city in Lucknow, a move that will help create job opportunities for about 25,000 people in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh government has awarded the project to Vamasundari Investments, the investment arm of HCL, the group said in a statement.

No financial details were available. About 60 acres of the proposed IT city will be allotted to IT and ITeS, including a hi-tech skill development center with a capacity to train more than 5000 people, it added.

The remaining 40 acres is intended for support infrastructure and initiates of social impact, it said.

"IT City shall play a crucial role in the overall economic development and boost up industrial growth of the state. Apart from this, it will directly create approximately 25,000 job opportunities for the youth of the state," UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said.

Ancillary support services required for setting up IT industry such as hardware manufacturing, telecommunication equipment and several others shall also create huge career opportunities, it added.

Yadav said the move will also stop the state's talent from migrating to other states in search of better career opportunities.

"Four decades ago, we dreamt of positively impacting the world with microprocessors and the journey then began in partnership with UP government...The development of IT City will further the momentum for innovation-led growth and social development in the state," HCL Founder and Chairman Shiv Nadar Foundation Shiv Nadar said.

Headquartered in Noida, the $6.4 billion HCL group offers indirect employment to one lakh people in UP. Of its total direct workforce of about 90,000 employees, about 30,000 work out of the state.

HCL also has a 46-acre SEZ campus in Noida. In its full capacity, the campus will seat 25,000 employees and generate export revenue to the tune of $one billion.

The group also runs the Shiv Nadar Foundation, which operates Shiv Nadar University in Dadri, VidyaGyan Leadership Academies in Blandisher and Sitapur and Shiv Nadar School in Noida.

​Samsung offers EMI-cum-upgrades for Galaxy range

In a bid to boost sales for its popular Android smartphones and tablets in India, Samsung has kicked off a new EMI-cum-upgrade scheme in the country. 

Smartphones and tablets purchased under this plan, named 'Stay New', will be offered with 18-month EMIs on HDFC, ICICI, Citibank and Standard Chartered credit cards, with applicable interest rates. Users can also upgrade to the latest Galaxy devices after six months by using the Easy BuyBack service, Samsung said in a release. 

Products covered under this scheme include Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy Note 2, Samsung S4, Samsung S4 Mini and Samsung S3 smartphones Galaxy Tab 3, as well as Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets. 

Samsung's 'Stay New' scheme will start on January 1 and last until March 31, 2014, or until stocks last. Buyers can head to retail stores as well as the company official online store to avail the offer. 

Easy Buy Back service is powered by Ingram Micro. Under this service, the user can sell back the current Samsung device by calling up Ingram Micro's toll free number within six to twelve months of purchasing the product. Post evaluation of the product, a buyback price will be informed to the customer. 

On accepting the instant offer of the best price, the device will be collected from the location of customer's choice and the agreed upon amount will be transferred directly into the customer's account. 

Vineet Taneja, country head, Samsung Mobiles & IT said, "The launch of the 'Stay New' plan reasserts Samsung's commitment to make premium Samsung smartphone experience more accessible and affordable. This not only offers a 18-month EMI programme but also an Easy Buy Back, which will help users upgrade to newer models as Samsung continues to innovate and bring latest technology."

Google, Audi developing in-car Android system: Report

 Google has reportedly joined hands with carmaker Audi to develop in-car entertainment and information systems that would function on the search giant's Androidoperating system.

The partnership is expected to be announced next week at the Consumer Electronics ShowA in Las Vegas, and its aim is to allow for in-car integration of music and navigation apps currently available on smartphones.

According to Cnet, the collaboration is expected to challenge Apple's iOS in the Car, which aims to integrate users' iPhones with their car's onboard receiver or infotainment system.

The tech giant has so far signed up such automakers as BMW, Honda, Mercedes, Nissan, Ferrari, Hyundai, Kia, and Infiniti to integrate more iOS features into their cars.

However, unlike Apple's OS, which requires and iOS device, the Google's Android-power system would run on the vehicle's built-in hardware.

The report added that rival Apple's infotainment system for cars is expected to kick off as soon as 2014 and could begin appearing in select 2015 models.

IT to create maximum jobs in 2014: Assocham

Information technology, banking and agriculture-related businesses are going to be among the key job creating sectors in 2014, according to a study by industry body Assocham.

"Information Technology (IT), pharmaceuticals, banking and agri-related industries such as farm equipment, fertilisers and seeds, will remain the largest employment generation sectors in 2014," the chamber said in its study.

All these sectors will stand out despite the present state of the economy where net employment is being lost and not created in a large majority of sectors.

IT will remain the net aggregator of jobs in 2014 due to recovery in the US economy, it said.

"The US economy is showing signs of improvement... A large number of American firms are expected to increase their IT spend as consumer sales pick up there," it added.

Continuous pressure on rupee will help increase the net income of IT companies and they will keep hiring, it pointed out.

"Since our economy still remains a good mix of organised and unorganised, large corporate and small enterprises, a large number of people in rural India are dependent on agriculture and tertiary industries; there are inherent and inbuilt strengths which come handy when the chips are down," Assocham President Rana Kapoor said.

Pharma sector will continue to hire in 2014. But because of some setbacks and tightening of regulations in the US and some other markets, the companies will have to invest more in improving their manufacturing and Research & Development.

Further, the study said that agri-based industries are expected to do better in 2014 on the back of a good rabi crop.

"The positive spin off would be evident in a whole lot of industries which are directly linked such as tractor and farm equipment manufacturers, irrigation firms and those involved in developing and selling seeds and fertilisers", it said.

On banking, the study said that 2014 is expected to be a better year for the sector.

"The NPAs would be reduced since the focus is very much there on the issue and there are signs of recovery in some segments of the economy. Besides, a huge number of backlog vacancies have to be filled up in public sector banks."

For the private banking sector, new licenses, which are likely to be given before April, will throw up new job opportunities.

While the new banks will leverage technology, job opportunities will arise both in brick and mortar as also in development and implementation of technology solutions, the study added.

Samsung to sell 110-inch ultra HD TV for $150,000

Samsung says a 110-inch TV that has four times the resolution of standard high-definition TVs is going on sale for about $150,000 in South Korea.

The launch of the giant television set reflects global TV makers' move toward ultra HD TVs as manufacturing bigger TVs using OLED proves too costly.

Last year, Samsung and rival LG Electronics touted OLED as the future of TV but they are still struggling to mass produce larger and affordable TVs with OLED. Japanese media reported that Sony and Panasonic decided to end their OLED partnership.

Samsung's 110-inch U-HD TV measures 2.6 meters by 1.8 meters. It will be available in China, the Middle East and Europe. In South Korea, the TV is priced at 160 million won ($152,000) while prices in other countries vary.

Bill Gates has no ego: Skype head Gurdeep Singh

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the world, as also one of the most powerful in the field of technology, has no ego, says Gurdeep Singh Pall, global head of Skype, the popular and free international voice and messaging service.

Chandigarh-born software engineer Pall, who was named as Skype's global head October this year, said: "The richest man in the world, who is among the most powerful people in technology, has no ego."

"Bill would debate you purely on the merit of the idea and he would expect you as his peer to engage with him and let the best idea win," Pall, who is also vice president, corporate at Microsoft, said in an interview on "Fair & Square" show on Chandigarh-based satellite television news channel, Day & Night News.

Talking about future things and how technology will transform lives globally, Pall said: "Put on your seat belts and get ready for a ride."

"The next decade of transformation in computer science is going to come through artificial intelligence and machine learning. The promise of wearable computing is actually very, very powerful and it is already emerging in areas like healthcare."

Pall, 47, who studied in Chandigarh's upscale St John's High School before completing his engineering degree in computer science from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), was visiting his parents here for the first time after taking over as the Skype global head in London. He also holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Oregon.

Heading the information platform and experience team in Microsoft's new applications and services division, Pall has more than 20 patents (approved or in process) in networking, VoIP and collaboration areas.

"Bill Gates is one of the few people in the world - and there are only a handful of them in software and outside - who has technology, business and strategy all worked out. And anybody who can operate across these three dimensions has incredible impact," said Pall, who has worked closely with Gates in the past 10 years.

The first Sikh to reach the top management of Microsoft, Pall joined Microsoft in January 1990 as a software design engineer. He has worked on many breakthrough products in his tenure, starting with LAN Manager Remote Access Service.

Part of the Windows NT development team and having led design and implementation of core networking technologies, Pall has worked on some defining projects in technology like Windows 95, Windows XP, TCPIP protocol, Wi-Fi and Bing which transformed lives of individuals and business corporations.

Named one of the "15 Innovators & Influencers Who Will Make A Difference" in 2008 by Information Week, Pall co-authored "Institutional Memory Goes Digital", which was published by Harvard Business Review as part of Breakthrough Ideas for 2009 and subsequently presented at the World Economic Forum 2009 in Davos.

As head of Skype, which has over 300 million active users, Pall said, "One-third of all long-distance calling in the world happens on Skype. Wherever I go, people tell me a personal story about Skype."

Pall says that India needs to move in the fast-forward mode to ensure that it does not lag other countries.

"India is one of the players (in the field of technology), it is not one of the leading players. Countries like China, who had not invested in computer science in the 1990s and had a language gap as well, are really, really growing fast now.

"In fact, today most of the graduates who are finishing PhDs in computer science in the US are coming from China," he pointed out.

Asked about a world without Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Pall said, "There are some secular trends in the industry which are immutable; they will happen regardless of whether certain people are there or not."

"If Bill Gates and Steve Jobs weren't there, these things would have taken a lot longer to converge because you would have ended up with lots of fragmented solutions which would compete among themselves and there would be inefficiency."

Comparing technology giants Apple and Microsoft, Pall told interviewer Khushwant Singh, "Apple is a very product-oriented company and you associate high design with it. But Microsoft is a very technology-oriented company where we ask how we can use the technology to create products."

Pall said Apple without Jobs has been left with a huge void.

"I personally think that people like Steve Jobs are really hard to replace and I suspect they (at Apple) are already feeling his absence and they will feel that more with time."

Apps to help you stick to New Year resolutions

Do you set up new year resolutions every year but no matter how hard you try, you always end up straying away from them? Then there are a few apps out there that may help you stick to your resolutions.

According to Cnet, for managing budget and savings goals, the best app is 'Mint' and for losing weight goals, 'Lose It' app is one of the top picks for getting in shape.

If you wish to quit smoking this year, 'Cessation Nation' app will set a quit date and then track your progress throughout the quitting process.

While 'Lift' app helps you start a new habit and cultivate it over time, 'Evernote', a note-taking app, organizes all of your digital and physical clutter into one streamlined space.

Bitcoin malware: India among top targets

Bitcoin craze is turning into a fertile ground for   cyberfraudsters as thousands of computers, including in India, are being infected with malwares   related to the virtual currency.

The findings of a survey, that has pegged the count of computers infected with bitcoin related malware at at least 12,000, comes at a time when regulators worldwide have flagged money laundering concerns about this popular virtual currency.

IT security firm Trend Micro, a 'bitcoin mining malware' is infecting computers globally leading to increasing threat of cybersecurity risks for bitcoins users.

India is among the countries that have been hit the most by such malwares, it said.

As per the survey, four out of the six countries that have the highest number of such infected computers are in the the Asia Pacific (APAC) region.

Japan was the most affected country with APAC, followed by Australia, India and Taiwan.

"Bitcoin users have become the hot target for cybercriminals as bitcoin transaction is permanent and has no reversal of charges," Trend Micro managing director (India & SAARC) Dhanya Thakkar said.

About 12,000 personal computers have been globally affected by malwares (related to bitcoin) which were causing severe slowdown of computer systems making them "virtual assets for the criminals," it added.

"Although bitcoin is claimed to be anonymous, the transaction records are still in public and it leave traces... Consequently, given enough circumstantial evidence, criminals can identify and obtain the owners personal information," Trend Micro said.

Thakkar noted that there is no regulator or authority that bitcoin users can appeal to if they fall victim to theft or fraud.

Going by estimates, as many as 67 digital currencies are in circulation on the internet and their total value is around $13 billion. Out of this amount, bitcoin alone accounts for over $9 billion.

Europe: Indian IT's new growth driver

North America may account for the lion's share of India's IT exports but, growing demand for outsourcing services from Europe is expected to drive the $108 billion IT sector in 2014, industry body Nasscom said.

"Europe is growing faster than the US. That is something we saw this year and this will only gain momentum. There is a lot of latent demand in the region, which will drive growth for the sector," Nasscom President Som Mittal told PTI.

North America accounts for over 60% of revenues of Indian IT exporters, while the European region contributes about 20% with the UK making up for the bulk of that share.

"The share of the European region has been growing... The market is now more open to outsourcing and in the coming year, we will see a lot of new projects coming up, which is a huge opportunity for our domestic companies," he said.

Indian IT companies are also ramping up presence in Europe as they face uncertainty in the US market, where new immigration laws could drive up costs of sending workers on short-term visas.

"The companies are bullish on the European market, which is evident from the acquisitions that some of them have made in the recent past," he said.

Indian companies have also been acquiring local firms to address labour issues and increase pace of growth in Europe. These include TCS' acquisition of French IT services firm Alti for Rs 530 crore, Geometric acquiring 3Cap Technologies for 11 million euros and Infosys buying Swiss consulting company Lodestone for $350 million last year.

US-based Cognizant, which has 75% of its workforce based in India, acquired six small IT services companies (part of Germany's C1 Group) for an undisclosed sum.

"For European companies, many of them which have seen prolonged economic slowdown, Indian IT firms not only offers cost advantage but also high quality of work," Mittal said.

Nasscom expects the domestic IT sector to grow by 12-14 per cent, while IT exports are likely to reach USD 86 billion in the current fiscal ending March next year on the back of adoption of new technologies and tapping new geographies by corporates.

SMAC: Combining technologies is the next big infotech revolution

In November 2011, during an earnings call with analysts, Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza spoke of the company's big investments in social, mobile, analytics, cloud (SMAC): "Today, SMAC collectively represents a very small percent of revenue. Our goal there is not necessarily short-term revenue."

Although the company coined the acronym widely used in the industry, Cognizant was not expecting big revenues quickly from SMAC. It is set to earn $500 million (about Rs 3,000 crore) in 2013 from its SMAC division, set up early this year.

Gordon Coburn, president of Cognizant, said at a technology conference in Boston last month: "If you had to ask me two years ago, would it be $0.5 billion, not in my wildest dreams. That shift has happened really quickly."

The year 2013 was a watershed for the IT industry, as one of the most powerful forces in its history started taking roots quickly. Social, mobile, analytics and cloud are technologies that have been present for a few years, but this year they started combining and growing together as a bunch, feeding off and reinforcing each other. Never in the history of the IT industry have so many trends happened simultaneously, and never have they combined so powerfully. "When you combine technologies," says Sanjay Purohit, global head of products, platforms and solutions at Infosys, "they grow exponentially."

Ahmedabad firm launches app for foodies

The hospitality industry has a new app to to increase its market presence and directly connect with customers using mobile as a medium. Ahmedabad-based firm, Azilen Technologies, has launched Spoonzo — a food ordering application that allows people to browse menu and order food from a restaurant.

With Spoonzo, customers can go to the restaurants, simply scan the QR code on the tables, get the menu and place their orders from their phones without waiting for the waiter.

The app allows for easy menu navigation and food selection, direct order from your smartphone, quick call for various services, save preferred dishes and favourite restaurants, avail the latest offers and promotions and provides ratings and reviews about the restaurant.

Naresh Prajapati, chief executive officer and co-founder of Azilen Technologies, said, "Digitizisation of menu is the next evolutionary step for restaurants that are looking to increase customer awareness and loyalty, and offer their valued guests a modern and interactive way to order food as well as receive personalized and interactive service. We also want to create a strong platform which connects restaurants and customers through brand and menu loyalty and we would also initiate a digital campaigning which tells you what your friends are ordering and what is trending at the moment."

Some restaurants in Ahmedabad have started using the app to connect with their customers. Vikas Punjabi, managing director, The Chocolate Room, said, "The app ushers in a global feel for our customers and helps us to deliver them more customized services and enhance brand loyalty. Our experiences with Spoonzo in last few months have been really amazing and result oriented."

Heritage museums turning to social media to attract new visitors

 

Curators of a small but rising number of heritage museums in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are looking to create a buzz in digital space through Facebook pages, web portals, smartphone apps and even by offering virtual tour on Google Art.

"We have a lot of art programs and workshops which are vibrant in nature and catered to students, teenagers and even art enthusiasts. Social media forms the best way to spread awareness about these events as well as the museum," Bilwa Kulkarni, education officer at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, said.

Recently, visitors to the Facebook page of this Mumbai-based museum, formerly known as thePrince of Wales Museum of Western India, were greeted with a quirky post: 'Mummy: The Inside Story'. It was about an upcoming exhibition on European civilization and generated much curiosity that translated into more than three lakh visitors to the exhibition that lasted about four months.

The Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata, Delhi-based National Museum and Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai are among the other museums in the country looking to engage people through social media. Victoria Memorial Hall — conceived by then viceroy of India Lord Curzon as a tribute to Queen Victoria — is in talks with Prasar Bharati to film a documentary that would be posted on YouTube and Facebook. "The documentary will picture a better idea about the museum," Dr Jayanta Sengupta, secretary-cum-curator at Victoria Memorial Hall, said.

It was also the third Indian museum — after National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi, and National Museum, Delhi — to be featured on Google Art, the Internet giant's project to allow virtual tour of some top art institutions around the world.

Victoria Memorial Hall, the most visited museum in the country with 18 lakh visitors in 2012-2013, plans to launch a smartphone app soon to help the visitors with an audio tour.

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya too plans smartphone applications for visitors. "We are working on the idea of creating mobile applications for the museum which will be geared at spreading information about the museum, visiting the museum and upcoming activities," Kulkarni said.

The museum's Twitter page too shall be active within a month, she said. Vijay Kumar Mathur, curator at National Museum, Delhi, said, "Every international museum has a strong presence on Facebook and nowadays when everyone is so connected to the medium, it was the next logical step for us to be a part of it."

Indian museums, however, are trailing international institutions in taking to social media to attract visitors from around the world.

"All major international cultural institutions are in a big way on social media," Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, director of Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, said. "In terms of what they are doing, we are slightly backward and need to strengthen our presence," she added. Mehta targets more than 50,000 followers for the museum's Facebook page, up from around 2,000 now.

Youth forms more than 70% of it visitors and Mehta plans to attract more of them. "Since the next generation is all accustomed to using smartphones and tablets, we are planning to introduce tablets/iPads inside the museum, which will have all the information about the collection in the museum, pictures, commentary by the curators, etc," she said.

The tablet will be available within the museum for an amount of `100 for visitors, said Mehta, who is also the vice-chairman of the Indian National Trust For Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), which is campaigning to get Delhi crowned as an UNESCO world heritage city.

INTACH, too, has chalked out several programmes through social media to garner support for India's first nomination for a world heritage city.

Annabel Lopez, project coordinator at INTACH, said, "We have to prove that our nomination is worthy and we have to have the confidence of various stakeholders — government, NGOs and the citizens — which is possible to a great extent through social media," she added.

 

INTACH has been conducting various educational campaigns, heritage walks and radio shows that are promoted through social networking websites to showcase the Mughal walled city of Shahjahanabad, or Old Delhi, and the colonial capital city of Lutyens Delhi among others.

"Social media has helped in reaching out to young people and we have had volunteers from schools and colleges who come during winter breaks and want to volunteer for the project," Lopez said. In January more than a thousand schools and around one lakh students from Delhi are expected to back the INTACH campaign on Facebook in the run up to submit the final dossier for Delhi's world heritage city status.

The Indian Museum in Kolkata, the country's largest museum that is currently closed for revamp, too is generating interest on its Facebook page with more than 300 requests daily. "Our Facebook page talks about all the new features that would be added to the revamped museums," Sayan Bhattacharya, education officer at Indian Museum, said.

Blast from the past: 1970s games revived on Internet

For those old enough to remember console games like "Asteroids" or "Red Baron," from the 1970s and 1980s: the games are back.

The Internet Archive this week launched its "Console Living Room," offering browser emulations of pre-Internet era video games which used to be played on consoles from firms likeAtari, Coleco or Magnavox.

"For a generation of children, the most exciting part of a Christmas morning was discovering a large box under the tree, ripping it apart, and looking at an exciting, colorful box promising endless video games. At home! Right in your living room!," said Jason Scott of the Internet Archive in a blog post.

Scott added that the games are being adapted by "an army of volunteer elves" who "will be improving them across the next few days."

"Sound is still not enabled, but is coming soon," he said. The initiative "harkens back to the revolution of the change in the hearth of the home, when the fireplace and later television were transformed by gaming consoles into a center of videogame entertainment," says the Web page devoted to the games.

The effort will enable a new generation to discover games that used to be on a cartridge inserted into a console, with titles including "Ninja Golf," and "Ms. Pac-Man."

The games, with crude graphics and sounds compared to today's programs, are still valued by nostalgia buffs who recall their pioneering technology which brought games into the home from video arcades.

The Internet Archive, known for its "Wayback Machine" which keeps websites even after they are shut down was founded in 1996 and helps researchers, historians, scholars and others find historical collections that exist in digital format. 

'Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4' leaked

While the South Korean giant hasn't made an official announcement, a new Galaxy tablet has surfaced on US certification agency FCC's website.

The new tablet, bearing model number SamsungSM-T320, is expected to be called the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and positioned as a high-end tablet.

The listing does not reveal much except that the tablet would support Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth, and have a rear camera.

Import data from Indian agency Zauba reveals that the tablet, imported from Korea for testing, would feature an 8.4-inch screen. It quotes the price of the prototype as Rs 34,941. While this price may not be the final retail price, it suggests that the tablet could be positioned as a premium offering.

The report says that the tablet will be unveiled mid-February, which implies that Samsung is likely to showcase it at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Samsung is also expected to unveil its second-generation Galaxy Gear smartwatch, two phablets and its first health-band at MWC.

Vineet Nayar retires from HCL's board

HCL Technologies, the country's fourth largest IT services firm, said that its director and former CEO Vineet Nayar would retire from the company's board to devote more time to his foundation.

The IT industry veteran, after having spent more than two decades with HCL Technologies, stepped down from the post of CEO in January this year to make way for the next generation of leaders to steer the company. He, however, continued to work as vice-chairman and joint managing director of the company.

Nayar, who has been a director in the company since 2008, has been appointed as senior advisor to HCL Technologiesand HCL Corporation, read a statement from HCL. Vineet will adviseHCL Corporation on key strategic issues and also work with the board of HCL Technologies on initiatives such as driving a high performance culture amongst senior managers and new strategies for growth.

"Vineet has been a friend and a colleague for over two decades now. His bold ideas and passion for the organisation, has inspired many others to think and dream big. His contribution to HCL and the board has been a benchmark for others to follow and we all are very proud of him. On behalf of the board, I thank him for all that he has done and I look forward to his continued association with HCL as a senior advisor," said Shiv Nadar, chief strategy officer and chairman HCL Technologies.

Commenting on this exit, Nayar said, "There are very few organisations where one could rise up the ranks and become the CEO and vice chairman. I applaud Shiv for creating such a culture at HCL and thank him for his mentorship, guidance and friendship over these years."

Nayar had off-loaded his entire stock holding in HCL Technologies for about Rs 134 crore in June last year to plough the money into his non-profit organization, Sampark.

"As I pursue my dream, of creating a 'Million Smiles' through Sampark Foundation, I carry with me goodwill, best wishes and lots of learning. I also hope to continue to add value to both HCL Technologies and HCL Corporation through my continued association. I wish all the HCLites,exciting and energized years ahead," said Nayar.

Zomato looks for a wider platter, to reach 22 countries over next 2 years

Zomato is planning to double the countries it is present in to 22 over the next two years as the popular, cash-rich eat-out guide tries to replicate the success of its maiden international foray in the United Arab Emirates, a senior executive said.

"Post our latest round of funding (Rs 227 crore) from Sequoia Capital and Info Edge, we've been following through with our global expansion plans aggressively. Over the next two years, we plan to take Zomato to 22 countries across the Americas, Europe, South East Asia, and Australia," co-founder and chief operating officer Pankaj Chaddah told ET.

The funding is and will be used for setting up offices in the 22 countries, hiring people and teams, etc, the company said separately. Zomato, which offers its services through a website and a mobile app, is currently present in 40 cities, across 11 countries. The cities include four in Brazil — Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Porto Alegre — and Hamilton in New Zealand.

Every month, over 15-million users globally visit the Zomato website to search for places to go out for a meal, get home delivery, catch up at a cafe, or enjoy the local nightlife. The website and app are also more global, being available in languages like Turkish, Portuguese and Bahasa, apart from English.

Zomato's mobile app has also been quite popular with about twomillion downloads in India and around 0.75-million overseas.

The company's plans in Brazil have been fuelled by the football World Cup, which is expected to attract tourists by the millions.

"We're aiming to be the go-to guide for anyone visiting the venues and looking for a place to eat, enjoy the nightlife, or catch a game over drinks. World Cup aside, Brazil has tremendous potential as a market," Chaddah said.

The main challenge to Zomato's global strategy is from identifying and hiring the right people. "We try our best to ensure that people are cultural fits — skill alone does not cut it for us." That apart, the company has to make sure each and every street in the cities that the service has been launched in is covered. "The information needs to be relevant and constantly updated," Chaddah said.

The five-year-old popular restaurant-listing site was the brainchild of two ex-IITians, Deepinder Goyal and Chaddah, who quit the leading consultancy firm Bain& Co, after a year of dabbling with hosting restaurant information on the web.

Having established itself in all the major Indian cities, the company ventured overseas by launching services in the UAE in September 2012. "The response that we received in the UAE market was a catalyst and gave us the confidence that our product could work globally," said Chaddah. Outside of India, Zomato's website gets its maximum traffic in the UAE. Zomato's major source of revenue is based on sellingadvertising space to restaurateurs, which they intend to continue with.

A marked shift towards Internet and mobile platforms across the globe has helped them to significantly widen their user base. The company now plans to increasingly tap into the surging mobile traffic globally and wants to be a mobile-centric company in the future. 

Online shopping grows, with some growing pains

Americans waited until the last minute to buy holiday gifts, but retailers weren't prepared for the spike.

Heavy spending in the final days of the mostly lackluster season sent sales up 3.5 percent between Nov. 1 and Tuesday, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, which tracks payments but doesn't give dollar figures.

Online shopping led the uptick, with spending up 10 percent to $38. 91 billion between Nov. 2 and Sunday, research firm comScore said.

``We always have last-minute Charlies, but this year even people who normally complete shopping earlier completed shopping later,'' said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at market research firm NPD Group.

But the late surge caught companies off guard. UPS and FedEx failed to deliver some packages by Christmas due to a combination of poor weather and overloaded systems, leaving some unhappy holiday shoppers.

Justin Londagin and his wife ordered their 7-year-old son a jersey of Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks from NFL's web site on Dec. 19. They paid $12.95 extra for two-day shipping to get it to their Augusta, Kansas, home before Christmas, but it didn't arrive in time.

``We had to get creative and wrote him a note from Santa to tell him that the jersey fell out of the sleigh and Santa will get it to him as soon as he could,'' he said.

Amazon is offering customers with delayed shipments a refund on their shipping charges and $20 toward a future purchase. And other retailers such as Macy's said they are still looking into the situation.

The last-minute surge this year solidifies the increasing popularity of online shopping, which accounts for about 10 percent of sales during the last three months of the year. But it also underscores the challenges that companies face delivering on the experience, particularly during the holiday shopping season that runs from the beginning of November through December.

Analysts say FedEx and UPS typically work closely with big retailers, trying to get a sense of what the volume of packages will be during peak times like the holiday season. Extra flights, trucks and seasonal workers can be added if the projections are large.

But this year, David Vernon, a senior research analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said weather played a role. The early December ice storms in Dallas could have hurt operations, he said, and packages can start to accumulate. And that got compounded this year by a late surge in shipments, he said.

``Clearly, as a group, (they) underestimated the demand for Internet retailing during the holidays,'' Vernon said.

Another problem was the growing popularity of retailers offering free shipping. Amazon, for one, has a two-day free shipping offer that comes with its $79 annual Prime membership. The company said, just in the third week of December, more than 1 million people signed up for the membership.

``Frankly the right hand wasn't talking to the left,'' said Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. ``The marketing teams of a lot of web retailers (offering free shipping) were not talking to the operations and supply chain teams.''

The delayed shipments could be a problem for shippers: ``It is a major problem for UPS and FedEx. The central pillar of their business is a perception of reliability with their customers,'' said Jeremy Robinson-Leon, COO of Group Gordon, a corporate and crisis PR firm. This year's snafus ``just really erodes trust among customers.''

Still, some analysts say people will still buy online. ``Consumers tend to have a short memory, especially if you fast forward to another year,'' said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of industry analysis for comScore.

Australian IT industry facing skills crisis; may generate over 21,000 new jobs

Despite efforts to meet falling demand, the Australian information technology sector is experiencing a costly skills crisis and needs to bridge the gap by hiring IT graduates for major projects.

The IT sector which contributes about AUD 42 billion to the nation's economy every year, is expected to generate over 21,000 new IT jobs in next three years.

The sector has been facing a crisis to meet the growing demand of skills. Australian government at both federal and state level has been spending millions to probe ways to fill thousands of empty jobs.

According to IT workers, government money would be better spent hiring graduates for big projects so they can get valuable on-the-job experience.

"The decline in manufacturing and the end of the mining boom suggests that Australia needs to find its competitive strength," Chris Walton of Professionals Australia, the union representing IT workers, was quoted saying an ABC report.

"And the fact is IT is essential to innovation and productivity," he said.

In a study report earlier this year, Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA) also indicated the changes needed to fix the problem.

"Around 45 per cent of small businesses don't yet have an online presence, and in the future that's going to be absolutely critical," study chairwoman Marie Persson said adding, "The whole global economy is happening, but possibly business is not quite realising how quickly."

Walton said that even the companies building an online presence and updating equipment will not hire inexperienced workers.

He urged the federal government to bridge the gap by hiring IT graduates for major projects.

"We've got this vicious cycle where companies only want experienced people, and headhunt from each other, pushing up wage rates, but aren't doing the development of the new graduates," Walton said.

"So we need to break that circuit and the only way we can see is for government, through its procurement, to require grad programs to be part of the procurement tender," he said.

Due to the nature of the IT industry, Australian companies often find the skills they need for a lower price by sending work offshore.

The AWPA acknowledges that it is a risk to local jobs. Persson says state and federal governments are trying to build an IT workforce that can compete on a global scale, but she wants Australia to take some tips from places like the UK.

Overstock.com plans to accept Bitcoin, giving the currency a boost

One of the biggest questions looming over Bitcoin, the digital currency generating attention in the tech business, is when big mainstream merchants will begin accepting it.

Overstock.com, the online discount retailer, has an answer: within the next six months, if all goes as planned.

Patrick Byrne, the company's chief executive, said Overstock planned to let online shoppers pay for goods with Bitcoin by June. The retailer is evaluating the services of several third-party firms that facilitate Bitcoin transactions, with the goal of selecting one by mid-January.

If Overstock follows through on the plan, it will become the most prominent retailer to embrace Bitcoin, an electronic currency that initially gained notoriety as a form of payment for black-market drug and weapons transactions and as a new craze for currency speculators. Bitcoin has captivated the imaginations of many technology entrepreneurs and investors, who see it as a low-cost payment system that could disrupt established players like Visa and MasterCard. But while many of them are forming or funding startups to provide different types of Bitcoin services, not many well-known retailers accept it directly.

Byrne's decision to take Bitcoin as a form of payment is driven by philosophical reasons more than business ones. In a lengthy voice mail message explaining his plans, Byrne said "some fraction, tiny now, of the population" currently wanted to transact using a digital currency like Bitcoin.

He appears more intrigued, however, by the idea of supporting a digital currency that is outside the control of any traditional government authority, echoing a libertarian argument that many fans of Bitcoin have made. Byrne finds the limitations of creating bitcoins appealing - there is a finite number of bitcoins that can be made available and they are released at predetermined pace, unlike traditional government currency.

"You want money to be based on something that no government mandarin can wish into existence with the stroke of a pen," he said.

In October, Byrne said that Overstock was thinking about accepting Bitcoin, but that it had suspended its plans because of the regulatory uncertainty around the digital currency. While regulators are still grappling with the implications of digital currency, several federal officials said at a Senate hearing in November that they believed digital currencies could operate within existing laws.

Byrne is a colorful executive who has been known to stake out controversial positions, including against investors he believes manipulated his company's stock. He also has an unconventional resume. Once an aspiring professional boxer, Byrne has a black belt in taekwondo and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford.

One obstacle to mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin may be its wildly fluctuating value, which could scare off consumers. After the value of a single bitcoin surged to $1,137 in late November, the price has fallen to about $759, deflated largely by a crackdown by Chinese authorities on Bitcoin trading.

Byrne said Overstock would insulate itself from such fluctuations by using derivatives to hedge the risk from any bitcoins it holds. Alternately, the retailer may convert its bitcoins to dollars on a nightly basis, he said.

Cheques to be paid in via smartphones in UK?

 

In an innovative move, British banks may soon allow customers to pay cheques into their account by taking photos on their smartphones.

Rather than go to the bank in person, customers will be able to photograph the cheque, and send it electronically.

The government is to launch a consultation on the idea, with a view to making the necessary legal changes, the BBC reported.

The technology will also allow cheques to be cleared in two days, rather than the six it takes at the moment.

Banks say the new transfer method will be more convenient, and more secure.

"Moving into a virtual world will actually create a more secure customer experience than the paper experience," said Antony Jenkins, the chief executive of Barclays.

Such photos would not be stored on the phone itself, so there should be no security risk if a phone was stolen.

Similar technology was introduced in the US nine years ago, following the attack on the World Trade Centre.

A new law known as Check 21 was passed, to enable banks to process cheques electronically, rather than having to transport paper versions across the country.

The UK government believes a change in the law would also promote the continuing use of cheques.

The UK Payments Council was originally planning to abolish all cheque payments by 2018, but was forced to change its mind after public opposition.

"We want to see more innovation so that customers see the benefits of new technologies," said Sajid Javid, the financial secretary to the Treasury.

"We want cheques to have a crucial role in the ongoing success of the UK," he added.

In 2012, 10 per cent of all payments by individuals were made by cheque, and 25 per cent of payments by businesses.

The industry says most younger account-holders already use electronic systems of payment, and rarely use cheques.

However all customers will still be able to pay in cheques by posting them to their bank, or by visiting their bank directly, the report said.

Barclays is planning to launch a pilot programme for paying in cheques via phone from April 2014.

It hopes to launch a service for all its customers later in the year.

"I think people are going into branches less and less, particularly as a result of mobile banking, and that's going to accelerate the process," Jenkins said.

How sites like YouTube are dealing with nasty commenters

Mix blatant bigotry with poor spelling. Add a dash of ALL CAPS. Top it off with a violent threat. And there you have it: A recipe for the worst of online comments, scourge of the internet.

Blame anonymity, blame politicians, blame human nature. But a growing number of websites are reining in the Wild West of online commentary. Companies including Google and the Huffington Post are trying everything from deploying moderators to forcing people to use their real names in order to restore civil discourse. Some sites, such as Popular Science, are banning comments altogether.

The efforts put sites in a delicate position. User comments add a lively, fresh feel to videos, stories and music. And, of course, the longer visitors stay to read the posts, and the more they come back, the more a site can charge for advertising.

What websites don't want is the kind of off-putting nastiness that spewed forth under a recent CNN.com article about the Affordable Care Act.

"If it were up to me, you progressive libs destroying this country would be hanging from the gallows for treason. People are awakening though. If I were you, I'd be very afraid," wrote someone using the name "JBlaze."

YouTube, which is owned by Google, has long been home to some of the Internet's most juvenile and grammatically incorrect comments. The site caused a stir last month when it began requiring people to log into Google Plus to write a comment. Besides herding users to Google's unified network, the company says the move is designed to raise the level of discourse in the conversations that play out under YouTube videos.

One such video, a Cheerios commercial featuring an interracial family, met with such a barrage of racist responses on YouTube in May that General Mills shut down comments on it altogether.

"Starting this week, when you're watching a video on YouTube, you'll see comments sorted by people you care about first," wrote YouTube product manager Nundu Janakiram and principal engineer Yonatan Zunger in a blog post announcing the changes. "If you post videos on your channel, you also have more tools to moderate welcome and unwelcome conversations. This way, YouTube comments will become conversations that matter to you."

Anonymity has always been a major appeal of online life. Two decades ago, The New Yorker magazine ran a cartoon with a dog sitting in front of a computer, one paw on the keyboard. The caption read: "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog." At its best, anonymity allows people to speak freely without repercussions. It allows whistle blowers and protesters to espouse unpopular opinions. At its worst, it allows people to spout off without repercussions. It gives trolls and bullies license to pick arguments, threaten and abuse.

But anonymity has been eroding in recent years. On the internet, many people may know not only your name, but also your latest musings, the songs you've listened to, your job history, who your friends are and even the brand of soap you prefer.

"It's not so much that our offline lives are going online, it's that our offline and online lives are more integrated," says Mark Lashley, a professor of communications at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Facebook, which requires people to use their real names, played a big part in the seismic shift.

"The way the Web was developed, it was unique in that the avatar and the handle were always these things people used to go by. It did develop into a Wild West situation," he says, adding that it's no surprise that Google and other companies are going this route. "As more people go online and we put more of our lives online, we should be held accountable for things we say."

Nearly three-quarters of teens and young adults think people are more likely to use discriminatory language online or in text messages than in face to face conversations, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV. The poll didn't distinguish between anonymous comments and those with real identities attached.

The Huffington Post is also clamping down on vicious comments. In addition to employing 40 human moderators who sift through readers' posts for racism, homophobia, hate speech and the like, the AOL-owned news site is also chipping away at anonymous commenting. Previously, anyone could respond to an article posted on the site by creating an account, without tying it to an email address. This fall, HuffPo began requiring people to verify their identity by connecting their accounts to an email address, but that didn't appear to be enough and the site now also asks commenters to log in using a verified Facebook account.

"We are reaching a place where the internet is growing up," says Jimmy Soni, managing editor of HuffPo. "These changes represent a maturing (online) environment."

Soni says the changes have already made a difference in the quality of the comments. The lack of total anonymity, while not a failsafe method, offers people a "gut check moment," he says. There have been "significantly fewer things that we would not be able to share with our mothers," in the HuffPo comments section since the change, Soni says.

Newspapers are also turning toward regulated comments. Of the largest 137 US newspapers - those with daily circulation above 50,000 - nearly 49% ban anonymous commenting, according to Arthur Santana, assistant communications professor at the University of Houston. Nearly 42% allow anonymity, while 9% do not have comments at all.

Curbing anonymity doesn't always help. Plenty of people are fine attaching their names and Facebook profiles to poorly spelled outbursts that live on long after their fury has passed.

In some cases, sites have gone further. Popular Science, the 141-year-old science and technology magazine, stopped allowing comments of any kind on its news articles in September.

While highlighting responses to articles about climate change and abortion, Popular Science online editor Suzanne LaBarre announced the change and explained in a blog post that comments can be "bad for science."

Because "comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories," wrote LaBarre.

Silicon Valley techies go stylish

The Silicon Valley has had a men's fashion problem dating back to its founders. 

From their inception, tech companies went out of their way to be different - and that meant no more business suits. Thus brilliant innovations took place in the dumpiest of outfits as leather sandals, elastic-waist jeans and old T-shirts became ubiquitous. 

But that's changing as a younger generation of engineers and designers have arrived seeking clothes that coordinate. 

"There's definitely a shift happening here, and the age of the Silicon Valley culture has something to do with it," said image professional Joseph Rosenfeld. 

"As a generation," he said, young professionals "tend to care more about style than engineers of the past." 

The market has responded to this new attitude among the region's rising nerds, geeks and hackers with new online men's stores, personal style consultants and an array of high-end shops at Northern California's biggest mall. They're catering to the emerging members of a creative industry who, nonetheless, are seeking something of a uniform. 

"They'll typically wear designer denim and a great button-up shirt by day, and throw on a sport coat at night to go to a cigar or wine bar," said Westfield Valley Fair mall general manager Matt Ehrie. "Silicon Valley's dressy attire would be casual Friday in most other parts of the country." 

Josh Meyer, 30, a products manager at a leading high-tech firm, recognizes the generation gap. He said higher-level managers who have been in the industry for decades often wear baggy khakis and faded baseball shirts "like they're going to a barbeque," while millennials such as himself like to wear button-up dress shirts "high-quality denim jeans with a roll at the bottom, nice shoes or possibly boots." 

"I can pick out techies just walking down the street by these outfits," he said. 

The focus on men's fashion has emerged in a sector where 3 of 4 workers are males. And it's come late by comparison as women in technology have long faced style challenges. 

Many have worked to strike a casual, professional and creative balance, even as blogs and news stories regularly focus on the image of female high-tech executives - from the extraordinarily stylish Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, featured in last month's Vogue, to Facebook's uber-chic chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg. 

Meanwhile, when men are similarly featured attention often shifts to casual attire - from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's famous hoodie to former Apple CEO Steve Jobs' black turtleneck. 

"As much as we want to think there isn't a boys club, the Silicon Valley still feels very much run by men and there's a difference in expectations," says San Mateo-based image consultant Marina Sarmiento Feehan. "Women who rise to the top tend to be judged more, both by men and other women, and in order to succeed they do have to dress better." 

With the nation's highest concentration of high-tech workers, accounting for almost a third of the jobs in the region, demographics show a younger, more affluent population than national averages. Newcomers tend to have the desire and the money to dress well, but they don't always have the time, so the men's fashion industry has responded by streamlining the process. 

Erik Schnakenberg, founder and CEO of a new online men's store, Buck Mason, said his company focuses on "guys who want to look great, who are aware of style, and who are not going to spend their days in Bloomingdale's trying to find the newest piece. Tech guys are at the top of that list." 

Buck Mason client Peter Dering is a firsthand example. When Dering launched his online startup Peek Design, which innovates and builds camera accessories, he worked marathon hours and had no time to shop. Still, he had both a personal and professional interest in looking sharp as he was raising $1.5 million and trying to hire top talent. 

"You've got a lot of folks who think that their style doesn't matter because they sit behind a desk all day, but the fact of the matter is that it does make a difference," said Dering, noting that people who want to be taken seriously should dress appropriately. 

Buck Mason sells American-made clothes in packages of matching neutral outfits, enough to dress a software engineer for a week with no fashion faux pas, and targets it's advertising online. The Silicon Valley is the company's top region for sales, Schnakenberg said. 

Also working to accommodate techies, one of the country's best-performing malls, Westfield Valley Fair, has opened high-end men's stores this year, including Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry and Louis Vuitton. The shops are grouped together with a separate outside entrance so shoppers don't have to fight past teens clogging the food court. And until now, such stores were mostly an hour away in San Francisco. 

The change in the Silicon Valley men's fashion culture has made things interesting for image professionals such as Rosenfeld. For 13 years he was mostly a loner advising area professionals, but in recent months competitors have popped up, including ties + tees, a pair of Silicon Valley personal image consultants whose pitch includes, "The 90s called. They want their drab khakis back." 

Still, Rosenfeld welcomes the new focus on fashion. "Birkenstocks with white socks was hideous back then, and it hasn't gotten any better," he said. "It's time to up the ante."

Gap between mid-level, freshers' salary set to widen

The gap between freshers' wages and mid-management salaries in the information technology industry is set to widen by at least a good eight times this year as companies look to rein in the cost of training freshers. 

While mid-management level wages were five to six times the compensation given to fresh graduates as recently as five years back, the number has jumped up to eight times at the upper limit this year, according to human resource consulting firm Mercer India. Especially post the recession in 2008, entry-level salaries have remained stagnant at Rs 2.75 lakh per annum to Rs 3.5 lakh per annum. "In comparison, mid-management salaries have grown at 8%-14%, and the difference has gone from 5-6 times, to at least 5.5-8 times of entry-level wages now," says Shanthi Naresh, business leader, Information Solutions, Mercer. 

Entry-level salaries have fallen over a 10-year period, adjusted for inflation, whereas mid-management salaries have grown at anywhere between 100%-150% in the same time, according to Subeer Bakshi, director, talent and rewards, Towers Watson. According to the consultancy firm, a decade ago, mid management salaries were around Rs 7 lakh per annum to Rs 8 lakh per annum. Currently, they are at Rs 15 lakh per annum to Rs 18 lakh per annum at IT-enabled services firms, and Rs 21 lakh per annum to Rs 22 lakh per annum at MNCs. 

The biggest reason for the growing gap, from the companies' perspective, is demand and supply. Mid-managers are hard to come by, while 600,000 engineers graduate each year, far surpassing the industry's appetite for only 250,000. And the engineers who do get hired are rarely close to being industry ready, leading to high training costs at the entry level. This is prompting engineering students to take a harder look at their skills, with companies measuring salaries against expertise. 

"Higher pay for freshers is difficult, considering you have to spend at least a year in making them productive, with up to 22 weeks of full-time training, which is a huge cost," says Som Mittal, president, Nasscom. 

Besides, managing wages is a big part of keeping costs low. As Prithvi Shergill, chief human resources officer, HCL TechnologiesB says, "We are in a competitive space, and we do need to manage our cost of supply; given that this is 50%-60% of your profit and loss statement." 

IT companies agree with the estimates. Mindtree's chief people officer, Ravi Shankar, says he concurs with Mercer's industry average. "Our mid-management salaries have grown at 6%-10% every year. Against a median entry-level salary of Rs 3 lakh, mid-management is at Rs 15 lakh per annum on average. There are no plans to revise fresher salaries at this point," he adds. 

Mid- management salaries at Wipro are about 5-7 times entry-level compensation at this point, says Samir Gadgil, global head, Compensation & Benefits, Wipro. He adds that there are no plans to revise the entry-level salary range from Rs 2.75 lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh per annum. 

While Infosys declined comment, TCS, which had given average wage hikes of 8%-10% in FY14, says it will not be revising fresher salaries. And HCL, which doled out hikes of 8% on an average across levels, also says the same.

Although the poor pay does not bode well for fresh graduates in IT, the new entrants are being pushed to reconsider how they invest in their education, given that pay gets better as they go up the ladder. They are also expected to proactively increase their value proposition, instead of taking a plain vanilla engineering degree as a ticket to a high-paying job. 

"If you can take more complex roles, equip yourself with in-demand skills from the beginning, and if you are flexible in terms of locations and work where required, we will pay you more," says Shergill. 

Engineering graduates now need to boost their resumes with expertise in high-growth areas such as digital media, big data, analytics, infrastructure management, in addition to a track record in leadership, says Sunil Goel, managing director of talent search firm GlobalHunt. While Gadgil of Wipro stresses on developing soft skills, Shankar from Mindtree says, summer internships, projects, relevant research, and smart utilisation of social media to attract employer attention, help to a great extent. 

While working in IT did not look quite as gloomy to students who had enrolled in engineering three to four years ago, the poor starting salaries have been impacting the image of the industry as an employer in recent times. "Engineers are looking at other options. For instance, if you are a civil engineer, you would look at going out of the country; and a lot of young talent is dropping out of the sector in 2-3 years to do MBAs," says Bakshi of Towers Watson.

Online shopping: Surfers now buy cars, houses online

It had been inching towards this for a while. India has now arrived in the high-value online shopping arena. Diamond jewellery isn't the priciest purchase you can make online anymore — cars, real estate and houses are.

After maturing as a platform for people to buy small products like books or electronics, the country's e-tailing industry then graduated to jewellery, and is now a convenient mode even for large-ticket purchases like houses/properties and SUVs. The fact that five houses worth Rs 25 crore, 35 Nissan cars and over 250 Tata Motors vehicles were sold in four days during the recently concluded great online shopping festival conducted by Google is testimony to this. According to data shared by the internet search giant, the e-tailing market in India is expected to grow eight times from $2 billion in 2012 to $16 billion by 2016.

"Apart from saving time, shopping online offers transparency, convenience and easy access. In purchases like cars, not all brands have wide dealership and service networks, and shopping online gives customers access. With real estate, customers have direct access to the company without going through brokers. Advantages like these will drive the purchase of large items like cars, homes and all other products online," said Arvind Singhal, chairman of consultancy firm Technopak.

Also, though people don't make many big-ticket purchases online, a lot of research and product comparison is done online. "Today, most car buyers go online before making a decision. So using the internet is a logical extension of the purchase cycle. At Nissan, we are putting in place suitable payment gateways with the help of specific car portals to ensure timely delivery and service at the time of purchase," said Nitish Tipnis, director (marketing), Hover Automotive India, Nissan's national sales company.

He added, "Unlike other countries, the growth of e-tailing in India is very different and e-commerce players bring out innovative schemes and options like cash-on-delivery and free exchange/return. These also help the industry mature and customers gradually develop faith in the system and payment mechanism." Tata Housing Development Company, for instance, gives customers a virtual tour of the property while booking flats online.

Earlier, companies had devised new concepts and looked at the e-tailing platforms as another means to reach out to customers. But the response for lapping up products online was a surprise. "This is an indication of the e-commerce ecosystem maturing. If ten days back I was asked if real estate would be sold online, I wouldn't have said it surely would. The sale of such big-ticket products and services like job search or matrimonial services was a surprise," said Nitin Bawankule, industry director (e-commerce), Google India.

Cognizant bets big on analytics

A car could today have an onboard telematics device that sends feeds to your insurer on your braking and acceleration habits, distance you travel, and the roads you frequently travel on. That would enable the insurer to build a pay-as-you-drive insurance policy - a higher premium for more and irresponsible driving. That, in turn, could potentially have a huge impact not just on the profitability of insurance companies, but also on people's driving habits.

The data collected from the onboard telematics device creates, what Cognizant calls, a personal Code Halo. Today, every click, swipe, 'like', buy, comment and search produces information that creates a unique virtual identity of any individual, company or device. Code Halo is the virtual digital information that surrounds any person, device and organization. And Cognizant has begun a major initiative to develop innovative commercial business solutions based on these Code Halos.

"A growing number of companies are beginning to make value out of Code Halos. They are seeking data and information from person, device and organization and creating a new business model that's redefining how commerce is done," said Paul Roehrig, assistant VP and co-director for the Future of Work initiative at Cognizant.

While many companies are working on big data analytics, Cognizant's idea is to build interfaces between, say, the data from a flight engine, the pilot's chatter, and the chatter of passengers at airports, and create a larger solution that enables airlines, airports and others to glean vital insights. Cognizant's new Future of Work division is a team of analysts who previously worked in industry research firms like Forrester and Gartner and who work with others in the organization to build larger business solutions.

Roehrig said there is a big shift in the business of technology with the digital economy expected to surpass the physical economy in value very soon. Cognizant surveyed 300 companies that achieved a total economic benefit of roughly $766 billion over the past year based on their use of business analytics. Among those that participated in its research, investment in business analytics yielded an average 8.4% increase in revenues and an average 8.1% improvement in cost reduction in the previous fiscal year.

Code Halo's foundation is SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, cloud), and the internet-of-things, or the internet-enabling of everyday devices and instruments, a trend that's beginning to take off. Social, mobile and internet-of-things produces vast quantities of personalized data, while cloud is the medium through which these become generally available.

Code Halo is a layer sitting above these volumes of data and weaves a business model around them. "Many companies — perhaps most — are missing the opportunity for significant economic benefit. If the companies we surveyed were to begin deploying best practices in analytics, we estimate they could create $853 billion of value within the next 12 months," Roehrig said.

SMAC will account for over $500 million of Cognizant's expected $8.8 billion revenue this year. It's one of the few companies that have started reporting their SMAC revenue separately, given the size of the business and its rapid growth. The Code Halo initiative is expected to accelerate this growth.