Staying home, connected to the world

On March 22, 1876, The New York Times reported that a hot new technology, the telephone - not Bell's, but a device invented by a German - might mean that people would never have to leave their homes again. 

"The telephone, by bringing music and ministers into every home, will empty the concert-halls and the churches," The Times said. 

Things didn't quite turn out that way. 

But 138 years later, the idea that technology is encouraging us to retreat from the real world, even as we connect elsewhere, does not seem so far-fetched. After all, you can get just about anything from your couch these days, including music and spiritual guidance. All you need is a smartphone. 

There is no denying that today's technology-powered hyper-convenience can be a wonderful thing. The other week I holed up with my smartphone, apps and online services to see how far I could go without leaving home. The short answer: very far. 

AmazonFresh dropped groceries at my doorstep. EBay delivered some gardening tools. I got a burrito, granola bars, locally roasted coffee, and wine. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I paid the person who walks my dog, Pixel, using a mobile payment app. I deposited checks with my smartphone camera. I had my laundry done using Washio, an app. Someone picked up my clothes and dropped them off, folded and pressed, 24 hours later. 

What could be easier? But then I began wondering about the price of all this convenience. Before Washio came along, I took my clothes to the small dry cleaner a block from my house. The app saved three minutes of my time. But in the process, it cut a neighborhood business out of the economic equation. And, in a way, I had cut off myself from the inconvenient, maddening, but all-too-necessary messiness of human interaction. 

None of this is news. One of the paradoxes of technology is that it connects us and isolates us at the same time. We get more, faster, but cannot help wondering if that is always better. We have more to read and more to watch, more to learn and more to transact, more friends and more followers - and yet we can somehow feel less satisfied. 

"On the one hand, there is so much that we are obviously losing by taking shortcuts and moving faster; we lose a kind of solitude and slowness," said James Gleick, the author of "The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood." "And you could also feel guilty that certain types of human contact disappear. You used to have accidental contact with all sorts of people that were part of your economic life." 

But in the end, Gleick said, the pros of our technology-driven lives outweigh the cons. 

"For every dry cleaner who you're now cutting yourself off from, you're potentially capable of being in touch with thousands of people who are physically far away," he told me. 

Not that his words made me feel any better about cutting out a neighborhood business. 

Many people - and young people, in particular - do not seem to worry about these pros and cons that much. Friends who used to hang out together now "hang out" together online. Conversations that used to take place face to face now happen on WhatsApp, Snapchat, Facebook - on and on. And the generation coming of age online is perfectly happy with this setup. 

Sheryl Connelly, the Ford Motor Co's manager of global consumer trends, told me what many parents already know: For teenagers, the smartphone is paramount, not only as a gateway to the world but also as a social marker. The teenage quest for a car has been replaced with the need for a smartphone. It is easier to communicate via smartphone than to get in a car to drive somewhere to actually talk to someone in person. 

And for young people, the same is increasingly true for commerce. They see transactions as just that - transactions - with little or no need for direct human contact. 

Danah Boyd, author of "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens," says that as these trends gather pace, society will change in new and surprising ways. Today's teenagers - like teenagers before them - will grow up thinking there is no other way to live. 

There are those in Silicon Valley who seem to take glee in the idea that one day all of us could be permanently homebound if we choose to be. And - who knows - they might be right. But there will be trade-offs, for better and worse. And as The Times report of 1876 suggests, the future may look very different than we think. 

How to Use Social Media to Improve Your IT Recruiting Strategy

CIO - In today's digital world, social media is everywhere. The technology has transformed almost every aspect of our lives -- from communication and collaboration to marketing and sales tocustomer engagement and service.

Even professional networking and job search tactics have shifted to take into account sites like LinkedIn. But for businesses, just having a presence on social networking sites isn't enough, says Jason Berkowitz, vice president of client services at Seven Step Recruiting Process Outsourcing (RPO).

To attract the top quality talent, businesses must engage candidates through venues like social media to sell them on the merits of the company and its mission, Berkowitz says. And one way to do that is by developing an effective social media hiring strategy.

"An old advertising adage is that half of your advertising budget is wasted. The problem is, you don't know which half. The same is true for recruitment and social media." -- Jason Berkowitz, Seven Step RPO

Deliver More Than Just Job Postings

"The goal should be to both make potential applicants aware that you have jobs available and to also show what it's like to work for your company -- showcasing the company's personality and culture," Berkowitz says, but that involves more than just posting an endless stream of want ads.

"You should focus first on creating a 'human face' for your brand to create real-time conversations with candidates and be authentic as possible. Show the true benefits of connecting with your company's accounts and make it a personal experience for candidates," Berkowitz says.

It's important to remember that a social media recruiting strategy will become a two-way conversation between the company and potential hires. Unlike traditional media or advertising, the goal is to create a conversation with potential candidates, not just push content to them.

"Social media also allows for connections with candidates in a more personal and engaging manner," Berkowitz says. "Social media can be used to form relationships with candidates and create an outlet of communication that may have not have been available before," but remember that communication like this goes both ways.

Expect that candidates may offer you feedback on your recruiting and hiring process as it evolves, and they may come up with questions, concerns or issues you hadn't thought of. That's why it's important, Berkowitz says, to make sure your messaging and communications are consistent.

It's especially important to have a social media expert skilled at responding to applicants and customers, someone with marketing, communications and social media experience who can act as the company's mouthpiece in a professional, yet engaging and cordial way, says Kimberly Samuelson, director of enterprise content management strategy at Laserfiche.

"You want someone who's well-versed in traditional marketing practices, but also someone who understands how candidates interact with companies and respond to engagement online," Samuelson says. "So, there should be a little bit of human psychology thrown in as well."

Whoever's in charge of the social media strategy should have experience responding to customers, both when feedback and inquiries are positive and when they are negative - you always want to put forward a professional, but approachable corporate image," Samuelson says.

"With so many people using social media, you have to understand not everyone's using the same networks. It can vary by industry." -- Kimberly Samuelson, Laserfiche

"You should establish rules of engagement. Determine who will post content and respond to questions, what topics will be discussed, what the turnaround time is for responses, how many times a day you will post content, what tools you will use to post content, and what candidates would want to learn about your company," Seven Step RPO's Berkowitz says.

Getting Social Can Shorten the Hiring Cycle

One of the best reasons to integrate social media into your overall recruiting, application and hiring process is that it can shorten the process, says Berkowitz.

Social media not only allows your business to find candidates and generate leads faster, but allows for a direct connection to candidates who may want to work for the company, even if they're not actively searching for a new position.

"Social media also helps to build a network of connections that includes both passive and active candidates. And since this network of candidates is constantly evolving; there is always a chance of someone being qualified for a position," Berkowitz says.

Use Data and Analysis to Recruit

Another benefit of social media technology is that it's easy to manage and monitor your progress and analyze what's working and what isn't. Tracking your social media efforts to see where successful candidates are coming from and what drew them to your company.

"Statistics like number of hires, increases in followers or page 'likes,' and number of shares and responses can all help to tailor your social recruitment strategy and make improvements where needed," he says.

Go Where Your Candidates Are

Though Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are the most well-known, don't discount other social media outlets, says Laserfiche's Samuelson. As is the case with almost any new technology, social media is very much about deciding what's the best fit for each company, leveraging what works and discarding what doesn't, she says.

"With so many people using social media, you have to understand not everyone's using the same networks. It can vary by industry. Indeed.com performed a survey that showed one of the fastest-growing social media sites was Instagram. That could make a lot of sense for companies with a design, photography, architecture or travel focus, for instance, but it's all about which technology and platforms you can use to drive engagement, loyalty, and better business responses," Samuelson says.

To that end, Berkowitz says, you'll need to compile research and analyze the data and your business needs to see where your candidates are and then join the conversation on those networks.

Remember, too, that new social media channels are springing up all the time, so your business must stay current on what technologies, platforms and tools potential candidates are using, Berkowitz says, and then shift your strategy accordingly.

"It's also important to realize that users will switch from one to another as newer, 'cooler' channels arise," he says. "For example, Twitter's growth started to slow as newer sites like Pinterest launched."

Don't Make Assumptions About Age

Don't assume that candidates using social media are all younger, Gen-Xers ormillennials, says Berkowitz, or you could be missing out on a large pool of highly qualified, seasoned workers.

One of the fastest-growing demographics on Twitter is 55 to 64-year-olds and Facebook it's 45 to 54-year-olds. "It's much more important to focus on creating and delivering content these age groups will respond to and then segment that according to your audience, Berkowitz says.

Supplementing Traditional Hiring Strategies

Finally, Berkowitz says, don't neglect your traditional hiring strategies and focus exclusively on social media or you'll lose an equally valuable portion of your available candidate pool.

Make sure your social media sites are accessible to candidates via your company's Careers page, in employees' email signatures, company newsletters and job announcements. If job-seekers don't know about your social media presence and can't access these sites, the strategy won't be successful, and you could miss out on some great talent, Berkowitz says.

"Social media has to be a supplement to traditional hiring strategies, not a replacement for them. An old advertising adage is that half of your advertising budget is wasted. The problem is, you don't know which half. The same is true for recruitment advertising, marketing and social media," Berkowitz says. "As the recruitment media universe has become more fractured, it's more important than ever to have a presence in as many different places as possible to reach the widest possible audience."

Is the End of Firefox on Windows 8 Really a Strong Indicator that Metro is Dead?

In a blog release on Friday, Mozilla Firefox's VP, Johnathan Nightingale, wrote that he had ordered those in charge of developing Firefox for the Windows Metro interface to stop further development. Why? Because, per Nightingale, Metro adoption is flat. His reasoning? Because on any given day the organization could never see more than 1,000 users testing Firefox for Metro, when they normally see millions of people testing a pre-release version developed for the desktop.

Over the weekend, Paul wrote a note about the Firefox on Metro announcement and it's worth a read. Since Paul's article, I've seen many other articles written about the Firefox on Metro demise, and they all take a similar tact: Metro is dead because Mozilla stopped development of Firefox. That truly begs the question: Is Firefox truly that strong of an indicator?

Granted, Windows 8's Metro interface has been a tough sell for Microsoft, however, it's not dead. Ask a Windows tablet user and they'll tell you they prefer the Metro side of Windows 8 over the desktop side.

But, maybe there's something else here. If you look at Desktop browser stats over the couple years, Firefox's overall popularity has waned a bit and where Firefox lost points, Chrome gained. To be honest, I never loaded Mozilla's Firefox Metro offering, and asking around I can't find too many who did, either. I definitely heard about Mozilla releasing betas, but I'm a bit more connected to the industry than most. And, once I heard about it, I forgot about it quickly. It just wasn't monumental enough for me to work my life around installing it. What I run on my Windows 8 desktop and tablet works just great for me.

But, I'm one of those strange people, I guess, who believe that Firefox is bloated and slow. As much as I dislike Google, I agree they offer a better browser that is sleek, fast, and as thick or thin as you decide to make it. So, Firefox's Metro attempt never really tempted me. Still, Firefox is a strong desktop contender, sitting behind Chrome at around 17% market share.

When you dig further into stats over the last year, you'll also note something else interesting that adds context to this discussion. For mobile and tablet, Firefox doesn't even make the list. Safari leads, followed by Android, Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer. Metro is a tablet/mobile interface, yet Firefox has literally no market share in this area – for any platform. With the world steadily migrating to all mobiles, tablets, and convertibles, maybe it's less about Metro and more about Firefox. Maybe Firefox is becoming irrelevant in a modern world.

Motorola betting on high-end phones

Motorola has insisted that it is not going to step away from competing at the top end of the phone market, despite the big success of its cheaper Moto G. 

It's clear that Moto, recently flogged to Lenovo by Google, is seeking to hammer home the message that good phones can come at a decent price, but that doesn't mean the focus has completely switched from 'aspirational' flagship phones. 

Speaking to TechRadar, the company's software chief Steve Horowitz made it clear that we will see a successor to the Moto X, because an aspirational phone is needed to 'bring people into the franchise.' 

Aspirational phones

"I can tell you obviously without talking about our future products that there is always an element of appeal to a consumer at a lower tier to have something aspirational at a higher tier," said Horowitz. 

"So we found that if we had just shipped Moto G on its own it probably wouldn't have been as successful. 

"You need an aspirational thing so that people to get into the franchise and get some of the benefits of the Moto X by buying a Moto G. 

"So we'll always want to push the limits on the high-end innovation because it's important for consumers to have something to aspire to at the upper tiers."

The message from Horowitz is certainly a sensible one, and it means that, for now, we can look forward to Motorola providing an alternative to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and iPhone 6.

IBM brings in analytics to Bollywood

Arindam Chaudhuri brought management principles, including pre-production audience surveys, to Bollywood filmmaking and thought he would have a guaranteed hit with his first film Rok Sako To Rok Lo in 2004. The film bombed at the box office.

That was ten years ago. Since then, analytics technologies have advanced phenomenally. And now IBM has brought these technologies to Bollywood and argues that filmmakers no longer need to depend only on their creative instincts and gut feel to ensure success at the box office. Some good data crunching, it says, can provide significant insights that can supplement the creative mind.

The company says it had applied its analytics framework to the Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh starrer Ram-leela much before its release, and had predicted with 73% confidence that it would have a successful first weekend. The film indeed had a great first weekend and went on to become a blockbuster.

That prediction framework was developed after IBM analysed over seven lakh posts across a variety of platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs for 25 Bollywood films with considerable social buzz. These included films like Ek Tha Tiger, Barfi, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Kai Po Che, Kahaani and Agneepath.

The analysis was used to arrive at a predictability of success by genres, or what IBM calls a social sentiment index (SSI). "People say data analytics is difficult to do in the media industry because it's driven by creative minds. That's not entirely true. We believe it's possible to provide rich, meaningful, impactful and actionable insights," says Raman Kalra, head of media & entertainment at IBM India.

The SSI revealed some interesting trends. It showed that it could be said with 75% confidence that a film with a political flavour stands a strong chance of scoring well at the box office, with factors like remakes and a star director further improving its success rate. In this genre, a superstar and choreography & set design were found to make only minor contributions to success.

Such analytics can help film producers understand better what will work and what will not, at the stage that a film is being scripted and conceptualized. Given that teasers of a film, including its music, come out several months before release and generates a lot of buzz, analyses of such buzz can also help film-makers fine tune their products before release, and decide on the most appropriate release dates and release locations. "Instead of doing a pan-India release, they could do a limited release in places where it generated positive sentiments," says Kalra.

Even in Hollywood predictive analytics is nascent. There was a rush of articles calling for use of analytics in Hollywood following the John Carter disaster in 2012. The Disney film lost some $200 million for its investors.

"Analytics allow studios to go beyond simple focus groups or established financial modeling to determine how audiences might respond to a given film. It's all about identifying patterns in past data, melding them with current data points that are readily available, and then taking action to improve business performance ," wrote the Harvard Business Review.

Pivotal Brings In-Memory Analysis To Hadoop

Pivotal, the EMC spin-off company pursuing modern application development in the context of cloud computing and big-data analysis, on Monday released Pivotal HD 2.0, an update of its Hadoop distribution incorporating an in-memory database and a battery of new analysis capabilities.

Pivotal HD 2.0 is the vendor's first distribution based on Apache Hadoop 2.2, the latest release of the open source platform incorporating YARN system resource management controls. The release also integrates and supports Apache GraphLab, an open source framework for derivatives monitoring, recommendations, and graph analytics.

The big news, however, is the addition of GemFire XD, an in-memory database designed to execute algorithms and analytics on data in real time. Blending elements of Pivotal's GemFire (in-memory object grid) and SQL Fire (in-memory database), GemFire XD puts a SQL-compliant, in-memory database on top of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), from which it can read data or write data with ultra-low latency.

GemFire XD could be used by a mobile network provider, for example, to determine the identity, location, device, and network of an incoming call within an instant and then apply complex algorithms or in-memory analytics to determine how to route the call making the best use of available capacity. The database could also handle data-transformation tasks before writing the data to HDFS, circumventing the need for processing that might otherwise be required by way of ETL routines.

The Hadoop community is lately looking to Apache Spark as an open-source option for in-memory and stream processing capabilities, but Pivotal says commercial GemFire XD has many advantages over that technology.

"We're excited about Spark and will support it, but it's generally used for [data] ingest or caching," said Michael Cucchi, Pivotal's senior director of product marketing, in an interview with InformationWeek. "GemFire XD is an ANSI-compliant SQL database with high-availability features, and it can run over wide-area networks, so you can have an instance in Europe and another in North America with replication."

In another database-derived advance in Pivotal HD 2.0, the company has enhanced its HAWQ SQL-on-Hadoop query engine, which is based on the Greenplum database. HAWQ can now apply the more than 50 in-database algorithms in the MADlib Machine Learning Library. What's more the engine now supports automatic translation of R, Python, and Java-based queries and applications so HAWQ can handle business logic and procedures now well handled in SQL.

Pivotal competitors such as Cloudera and Hortonworks slam HAWQ's commercial roots, but here, too, the vendor says its proprietary technology has advantages over Hive, Impala, and other open source SQL-on-Hadoop options.

"HAWQ takes advantage of Greenplum's 10 years of history as a massively parallel processing analytical query engine, so it's 100% SQL compliant, has broad support, and it's extremely high performance compared to [Hive, Impala,] and other options," said Cucchi.

Working on defusing another criticism of HAWQ, Pivotal announced that HD 2.0 introduces beta support for reading and writing of Parquet files from HAWQ. This means the engine will soon support an open file type rather than the Greenplum-specific formatting currently used by the database.

Matching Cloudera's "enterprise data hub" concept, Pivotal has developed aBusiness Data Lake architecture with HD 2.0 at the center of enterprise data management. But the company is still catching up in some regards in that its proprietary HAWQ and GemFire XD components can't, as yet, be managed by YARN. That's something Pivotal is working on, according to Cucchi, but for now companies will have to use the combination of Pivotal Command Center, Virtual Resource Planner tools, and YARN to separately manage the resources and workloads within a data lake environment.

Pivotal sees its biggest advantage as being its larger Pivotal One Platform, which combines its Spring Source application-development framework and Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service capabilities as well as the companies data-management capabilities.

"We have hooks from our data-services capabilities so Spring Source developers can make calls from within their environment that will make the data products react," Cucchi explained. "Developers can also spin up hundreds of nodes of Hadoop [on our cloud platform] within minutes, and then with one click, they can attach data services directly to their applications."

That's a much broader play than Pivotal's key Hadoop-distributor competitors try to address, but the question is whether Pivotal can win in all three of the markets in which it competes: application development, cloud infrastructure, and high-scale data management. On that last front, Pivotal now has more than 100 customers running on its Hadoop distribution, with most using HAWQ, according to Cucchi, but he declined to cite recent customer wins.

Cloudera and Hortonworks are generally seen as the leaders of the fast-growing Hadoop market, with Pivotal ranking somewhere after MapR and in the same league as IBM (with BigInsights) in bringing the platform to enterprise customers.

Industry voice: The benefits of a truly open cloud

In truth we're nowhere near understanding the true potential of the cloud or the Internet of Things and the scope it offers developers, nor has anyone grasped the range of possibilities that it will open up for either businesses or consumers.

Social media has blazed a path in demonstrating the value that can be built in a very short space of time. AWS is another great example, and as a platform for interchange it has a lot in common with Facebook.

Both companies reduced the barriers to entry for start-ups to create and market very small, very specialised applications to a broad set of users in order to grow rapidly. In that way they have a lot in common with the success of iOS and Android in the mobile world.

All four, to varying extents, provide(d) a curated market for experimentation and entrepreneurship, and a simple method to commercialise any traction achieved.

Gone are the old ways

The old days of managing PCs and servers with monolithic on-premise products are over. Cloud services and the mobility, scalability and flexibility they offer are now starting to appeal to businesses of all sizes, and vendors need to respond fast.

We need to enable our customers to bring in best in class solutions easily and affordably rather than creating needless barriers or anti-competitive walls. We need to be flexible and open to collaboration or integration.

For me the concept of all-in-one products has reached its zenith and it's time to move on. There are just too many smart kids entering the market nowadays for that kind of strategy to work and not to be knocked down and replaced by more specialised services; those with a narrower focus, but more broad and robust interfaces to allow deep integration and collaboration within an ecosystem of like-minded offerings.

Let's also not forget that today's developers are being brought up in an 'appified' world. People collect and organise multiple apps on mobile platforms that allow just enough sandboxing to ensure security and data privacy, but an otherwise open field for co-operation between complimentary apps.

Why would these same people change their approach when designing enterprise services?

You can see how we got here. Historically, product leaders faced with high penetration have needed to add to their portfolio to maintain growth and consolidate their position.

Hey, if you make great taps, and sell a lot of them, you might as well sell plugs as well, right? And then sinks and baths, showerheads, and what about toilets too.

The problem is, unless your products all work with your competitor's products, you'd better make sure that each and every one of them is the very best.

And therein lies the problem. No company can be the best at everything, forever. Sooner or later there will be a start-up in a garage that will make a better tap and it won't work with your pipes.

When it comes to offering your customers what they want, I'm a big believer in accepting that sometimes somebody else might offer them something that you either can't, or choose not to. Technology vendors shouldn't try to be something they aren't.

At CentraStage we don't try to be best at everything, but we sure as hell want to be the best device management solution. So why not team up with another specialist technology solution that does offer what your customer wants?

Cloud makes it easy

It seems like a no-brainer to me and cloud computing makes it easy. No longer will customers have to search for one technology that does everything and inevitably fails to do much of it well.

SaaS technologies, combined with private or published APIs, allow customers to choose the best technology fit for their business and seamlessly integrate them, without the need for extortionate professional services.

I don't pretend to know the answer, but I'll offer an alternative scenario, and the success of iOS and Android in the mobile market provides a great insight.

I would argue that their current dominance over competing platform such as Windows Phone and Blackberry 10 is not down to whizzier feature sets or a flashier UI; but rather due to their provision of a superior platform for application interchange – and that includes both the technical and commercial aspects.

Importantly, they allow their users (customers) to pick and choose – and change their mind multiple times – on the mix of specialist apps that collectively provide them with the experience and outcome that they seek. Specialised apps, produced by specialist companies, which do one or two things really well.

Blackberry was too late in figuring that bit out, and Microsoft (initially) figured they could do it all themselves. There's just too much you can do on a mobile device for one company to be the best at everything, and that's a good thing.

In my opinion, the exchange of data and functionality between specialist cloud services will be key to unlocking the 'internet of things'; technology vendors need to decide what services they are offering and what they need to do to make themselves indispensable to their customers.

Software providers need to grow, evolve and converge to ensure they're ready for the coming tidal wave of mobile, cloud, social and Big Data realities that will make up the 'internet of things'. That's certainly what my team and I are doing.

• Christian Nagele is CEO and co-founder of CentraStage, a global SaaS endpoint management platform that delivers full visibility, control and compliance through a single cloud platform. Christian co-founded CentraStage in 2008 in response to the growing challenge of endpoint management.

iPhone 6 may be the smartest phone yet with an array of new sensors

The pieces of the iPhone 6 puzzle are steadily coming together and the latest we're hearing is that Cupertino may pack its next handset with an array of smart sensors.

Sun Chang Xu, chief news analyst at ESM-China, claims that sources close to the matter have said the iPhone 6 will come with pressure, humidity and temperature sensors.

Apple's iWatch could also arrive with some of these sensors – it's already rumoured to have one for blood pressure - while iOS 8 is believed to be arriving with support for a range of new sensors too.

A recent, though unconfirmed, leak suggests the new OS will come with Apple's fitness-tracking app Healthbook, so it wouldn't be absurd to see some other environmental sensors on the next iPhone as well.

Sensitive

And let's remember that Samsung got in there well ahead of Apple, packing the Samsung Galaxy S4 with a barometer and sensors for humidity and temperature.

"The whole sensor field is going to explode," were Tim Cook's works last year. "It's a little all over the place right now… with the arc of time it will become clearer."

ET Review: Gionee Elife E7

Price: Rs 26,999 (16GB) 

Rating: 4.5 stars 

Specifications: 5.5-inch full HD IPS display, 2.2Ghz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, 16MP + 8MP camera, NFC, FM, USB host, Android 4.2, 2,500mAh, 150 grams. 

Positives: Fantastic display, great hardware, excellent camera, good battery life, loud and clear audio. 

Negatives: Default Amigo launcher is too sluggish, no expandable storage, no TV out, glossy back panel. 

NEW DELHI: Gionee is less than a year old in India but has consistently delivered impressive smartphones. The E7 is their new flagship and offers exceptional features for the price. 

Like the Elife E6, the E7 also has a unibody design. It has a slight curve on the back that makes the phone feel slimmer and provides an ergonomic grip. However, the glossy finish on the rear is a fingerprint magnet. 

The 5.5-inch full HD display offers great viewing angles, rich colours and is a joy while watching videos, reading or browsing web pages. We received the 16GB variant of E7 which is powered by a 2.2Ghz quad core Qualcomm snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB RAM. You can also get a 32GB variant with 2.5Ghz Qualcomm snapdragon 800 processor and 3GB RAM for Rs 29,999. 

As expected, we could play full HD video and various games without a hitch. The 2,500mAh battery easily lasted a day with regular usage including multimedia, camera, voice calls and constant data (WiFi/3G) connectivity. Gionee uses an interface called Amigo UI on their phones. 

The E7 has Amigo 2.0 and while there are a number of useful features, it feels sluggish.We switched to the free Nova Launcher and the issue was resolved. Apart from the hardware and display, the camera is the E7's strong point. 

The 16MP rear camera is exceptional — it takes detailed images with minimal noise and does full HD video recording in fantastic quality. Even the settings interface is customised with an easy-to-use interface for access to functions such as modes, exposure, white balance, ISO and timer. 

The front 8MP autofocus camera is laggy and saves an image only after about a second of pressing the shutter button, often leading to blurred images. The Gionee E7 with 16GB storage is already selling for Rs 24,000 online. 

At this price, it's undoubtedly fantastic value for money. Because of the gorgeous display, top-notch hardware and best-in-class camera, we highly recommend it. 

Also see: Lenovo K900 

Price: Rs 22,395 

Specifications: 5.5-inch full HD screen, 2Ghz dual core Intel Atom processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, 13MP rear camera with f1.8 lens + 2MP front camera, 2,500mAh, 162 grams.

Apple will launch a cheaper iPhone 5C tomorrow

Apple will put out an 8GB version of the iPhone 5C tomorrow, one O2 store has told us.

The retailer was unable to confirm the price the handset will sell for, but told us that you'll be able to grab one starting March 18.

The information originally came from some leaked documents from O2 Germany, outing an iPhone 5C that will retail for 60 euros less than the current model.

This would likely translate to around £50 cheaper in the UK. The 16GB model currently sells for around £470 SIM-free - a £420 iPhone sounds pretty good to us.

The cheap one we've been waiting for?

Despite expectations, the iPhone 5C didn't launch for as little money as we'd have liked to see it and there have also been rumours that Apple's baby isn't proving as popular as it hoped.

All in all, it seems like a more affordable phone is a wise move for Apple to make right now, especially given the overtures other manufacturers have been making to emerging markets.

We don't know about the possibility of the phone's release beyond the UK, but we expect most countries will be seeing it soon. The US could be looking at a $470 handset if it makes its way over.

10 simple rules to make email (within teams) more efficient

You don’t need an interoffice communications manual to get people to communicate better. Just lead by example, and come up with some simple pointers to improve things. Here are a few of the rules I set myself and which I hope people on my team start copying.

Don’t reply to everything
This sounds counterintuitive but you really don’t have to reply ‘Thanks’, ‘Got it’ or ‘Let me get back to you on that’ to every email. When I ask you a question feel free to not answer until you know the reply. If it is a simple FYI just consider yourself informed. When the email contains a question then sure, answer it as best as you can.

Don’t email everything (keep a list)
It is extremely easy to email every brain fart you produce to everybody on the team. Don’t abuse this power. Email with moderation. I now keep a list of names in my notes app and collect my questions under every name. The next time we speak on Skype or do a chat I might ask 10 questions at a time. I’ve collected these questions over the week, and can even send them all at once in one email.

Do an email-handshake first
before you start emailing people take a few minutes to talk about how they want to receive email. The answers might surprise you. Some people like emails long and detailed and with all the info in one message. Others prefer shorter and more emails with one email per subject. Stuff like that really matter. And of course, forward them this post first.

Shorter is better
Keep messages short and sweet. We understand you are a very talented writer, but if your email requires us to scroll we will file it in our tl;dr folder for later, ahem, analysis. Think of it this way: with every sentence you add there is an extra 5 percent chance we won’t read and reply right away. 20 sentences and you might as well never send it at all.

Is email the best medium for this question?
I love email and it really is my preferred medium of choice. But some subjects are better discussed over a call, a meeting or even in a text chat. Is your question extremely short? Maybe try a Skype chat, text message or face-to-face meeting then. I’d say that 50 percent of my emails would be better off in a Skype chat window.

Keep emotions out of it
Are you angry? Is there a good chance that the person who will receive this email will get angry? Then don’t send the email. If a message is going to provoke an emotional reaction or some lengthy discussion, it’s worth setting up a call or meeting instead.

Don’t email documents
It is very cool that you can attach documents to emails. And you can attach vCards, funny images and screenshots and you won’t hear me complain. But for documents like presentations, spreadsheets or really any other file that needs to be collaborated on, this really isn’t the right medium. If you work on something together give Google Drive a try. If you’re stuck with Office or iWorks useDropbox to set up shared folders. Even screenshots are really better handled with Droplr or Skitch.

Only CC with a reason
When you CC, specifically mention what you are CCing people for. I often find myself going through a huge thread wondering why the hell I’m CCed and trying to find out what I’m supposed to reply to. It really should be a rule that if you CC someone, you are required to add a line of text for each person you CC explaining why. Something like this:

> Patrick: Just a FYI, no reply needed
> Sophie: Paragraph 2 (‘the form’) is for you. Please submit it.
> Matt: Can you answer question 1 and 3 (only reply to Sophie!)

BCC is a great gift
One of the best things I can read in an email is ‘I’m moving you to BCC now’. That means I’m considered informed, but no longer necessary for the, no doubt, lengthy email thread that is about to follow. It gives me about as much joy as when my teacher told me ‘take the rest of the day off’ when I was 10. I try to make a habit out of moving as many people to the BCC field as possible when I get an email with a lot of names in it.

Don’t email at all
A lot of people start their day in their Inbox. You might feel useful and productive cleaning your inbox and sending out a lot of emails, but that might not really be the case at all. You are creating work for others and it might be better to think about what you are working on first. Remember, 20 years ago email didn’t even exist, and people did business just fine.

Conclusion
Email is a great communication tool, but it’s often abused too. As with any tool though, with a little thought you can use it well and get the most out of it. What are your favorite tips and rules for more efficient emailing?

Top Apps for Boosting Mobile Security

LastPass is a multi-platform app which can manage passwords across devices and help you generate secure ones unique to each site. Using the LastPass app you have access to the same logins you use on your desktop, while they are stored in a secure form.

Although the app is free, you will need a $12/year LastPass subscription to use it beyond the 14-day trial period.

VPNs to Secure Remote Access

Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are essential for ensuring secure communications. A VPN builds an encrypted tunnel between your device and a remote server. For corporate use, a VPN is often the only way you can remotely access company assets. But even for personal use, a VPN secures communications which might otherwise be potentially vulnerable, such as using your device over open Wi-Fi connections like those at public hotspots like libraries and cafes.

You must have a VPN server to connect to in order to use a VPN. This is beyond the scope of this article, but one popular type of VPN server is called OpenVPN Connect. Likewise, the free OpenVPN Connect app for Android makes it easy to connect to a compatible server. When connected, a persistent notification icon reminds you that the VPN connection is in place and your activity is secured.

Encrypting Mobile Data

Mobile devices store lots of personal data – from text messages to camera photos to any documents you’ve loaded onto the device, either through a physical network or downloaded from a cloud storage service.

Besides network-based attacks, simple theft can provide a treasure trove of data to criminals. They can download data from your device or, if it has removable SD-card storage, simply pop the chip into a card reader and plunder your data. Unless your data is encrypted, that is.

Encrypting data can be complicated, but it is worth the learning curve. A popular solution is the free and open source TrueCrypt for desktop machines. With TrueCrypt you can create a virtual "folder" which contains multiple files. The entire folder is encrypted and portable between devices. Android users can get the free app EDS Lite which can access TrueCrypt containers. (Containers must be created with particular configuration settings.)

A more user-friendly but service-specific data encryption app is Boxcryptor Classic. This app will automatically encrypt data stored on cloud services like Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive. It does not require the learning curve of using TrueCrypt but offers limited functionality in its free version. A paid Boxcryptor account buys you realtime encryption to multiple cloud services simultaneously.

For corporate users, DataNow from AppSense is a more sophisticated encryption solution which works end-to-end between the client device and many kinds of corporate resources.

When security analysts look at the potential weaknesses in a system, they talk about how much "surface area" is exposed to risk. Mobile computing is an incredible convenience but it has also sizably increased our personal surface areas. Smartphones and tablets extend network access to our sensitive data well outside the home and office, and the devices themselves are physically small and vulnerable to loss and theft.

With all that in mind, you can reduce your risks by arming yourself with effective security apps. These select apps can help protect your security on a number of different fronts.

Protecting Mobile Passwords

Among the most vulnerable attack vectors these days are our passwords, which we must use between devices and somehow maintain uniqueness between sites and services. Fact is, many people do not – and that can turn out to be a mistake when a weak service is compromised, revealing a password you use on multiple sites with sensitive personal data.

PGP Email

Interest in email encryption has been on the rise lately, particularly in the wake of the various reports about NSA activity. While encrypted email is an effective way to keep your communications private from the prying eyes of superpowers, it is also somewhat cumbersome to implement. PGP has long been the favored tool for generating encryption keys and messages, but it is not always the easiest software to master.

AGP for Android helps smooth the path by integrating PGP encryption with the popular Android mail client K-9. While you’ll still need to understand and implement public and private keys, with AGP you can more easily fire off and decode encrypted emails without a lot of manual cut-and-paste work.

For iOS users, the app iPGMail smooths the process for creating and managing PGP keys. Although it is not an email client itself, it provides some integration with the built-in iOS Mail App so that messages and attachments can be encrypted on-the-fly. However, the process is not friction-free, as messages must be pasted from the mail app into the PGP app for decoding.

Malware, Remote Control and Mobile Device Tracking

You might be surprised that anti-virus apps haven’t made this list yet. Although the technology media is quick to highlight studies about the rise of Android malware, most of these risks do not apply to typical users. Android malware is real, but it is largely confined to sideloaded apps which are acquired through unofficial channels – specifically, outside the Google Play store. There have been exceptions, but they are hardly epidemic, and the Play store has been further hardened against hidden malware.

That said, anti-virus apps have a place, both for personal security and potentially for corporate legal reasons. Long-time desktop anti-virus maker Avast has made a strong claim for the Android space with its Mobile Security & AntiVirus app. In addition to malware scanning, this app also provides defenses against lost or stolen devices. You can disable lost Android devices using remote disable and wipe, or track their location.

iOS users do not need third-party apps for basic lost device defenses. Particularly with iOS7, Apple’s iCloud now functions as a remote device management console. Lost or missing devices can be remotely disabled and even located using iCloud, assuming you have an iCloud account and can log into it.

Still, there are apps that can provide additional functionality. GPS Location Tracker by FollowMee will silently track a device’s movements, which are accessible through a Google Map view on the companion website. A free account supports realtime tracking and a seven-day history; longer histories are available with a paid account. The app also supports "geo-fencing," meaning that you can define boundaries (via the Web service), and receive alerts when the device is moved outside these virtual fences.