Tech News Stop - Sharing by Wasim Akhtar

::::Google revamps U.S. search::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337258262_temp.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Google is revamping the way it handles searches in the United States to give users quick access to answers without leaving the page, the company said.The new search process is based on what Google calls the "knowledge graph" -- meaning that it tries to pinpoint faster the context surrounding its users' keyword searches."Over the years, as search has improved, people expect more," said Amit Singhal, vice president of engineering at Google and the head of search, in an interview. "We see this as the next big improvement in search relevance."The redesign, which for now affects only U.S.-based English language users, is gradually being rolled starting Wednesday on desktop, mobile and tablet platforms. Google plans to eventually expand the new search features outside the U.S., Singhal said, without specifying when.Many of the results will carry more graphical elements, compared to standard lists of search results, such as maps and pictures of related results, often in separate pop-ups. The idea is to let users easily discover what related material interests them and click through to it, Singhal said.The offering is the latest example of search companies moving away from offering a list of text-based links as search results. Last week, Microsoft's (MSFT.O) Bing unveiled a redesign that includes a "snapshot" column. Last year, Yahoo (YHOO.O) rolled out its "search direct box."Google is by far the leader in search, with 66 percent of the U.S. market, according to comScore. But it sees other sites such as Facebook (FB.O) as competition, as users there can poll their friends and acquaintances for information on various topics without leaving the Facebook ecosystem.Under Google's existing algorithm, a search for "kings" might pull up results for the ice hockey team, the basketball team, and the TV series, all on the first results page.On the revamped Google, a box will pop up in the top right-hand corner of the screen, giving users the option right away to limit their search to the desired meaning of "kings."For some searches, such as on prominent people, Google will automatically pull up a summary box with key information on that topic. The summary box will also appear on the top right of the page.A search for architect Frank Lloyd Wright, for example, pulls up the first line of his Wikipedia entry, plus dates of birth and death, thumbnail pictures of his best-known buildings, and thumbnail pictures of other architects people commonly search for.The upshot is that many users will end their Internet search without leaving Google's pages, when in the past they might have continued to a site such as Wikipedia, which is collaborating with Google on the new search features.Google said it could actually drive more traffic to Wikipedia, which will be prominently linked to in the summary boxes. A Wikipedia spokesman said Google is using Wikipedia information in an appropriate way.The new techniques are based in large part on work done at online data collection Freebase, Singhal said. Freebase was developed by Metaweb, a company Google acquired in 2010.Google is also working on being able to better answer more complex questions such as "What are the ten deepest lakes in Africa?" that require its algorithms to factor in several different criteria.But it may never be able to crack some users' toughest questions, such as "Does my hairstyle make me look fat?" which Singhal said was a real user query."We are not magicians," he said. "We are just computer science geeks."

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::::Samsung & Apple take half of global smartphone market, Android & iOS hit 80 percent::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337219593_temp.png" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Research firm Gartner released its numbers today for “Worldwide Mobile Device Sales” during Q1 2012. There are not many surprises in the report when it comes to Apple, but Gartner estimated Samsung sold 38 smartphones during the quarter, which is less than the 42.2 million estimated by IDC earlier this month and more than the 32 million by IHS iSuppli. With Apple confirming 35.1 million iPhones sold during the quarter, Gartner’s numbers put Samsung as the both the No. 1 smartphone and overall mobile device vendor. The report also noted Samsung and Apple together accounted for 49.3-percent of the global smartphone sales, which is up from just 29.3 percent in Q1 of last year:“The continued roll-out of third generation (3G)-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China. In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems (OSs), and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America. However, as we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable.”On the platform side, Gartner’s report estimated both Android and iOS accounted for 79 percent of global smartphone sales—up from just 53.3-percent in Q1 2011. Of that 80 percent, Android grabbed 56.1-percent, which is slightly higher than the 51 percent of the United States market, according to estimates from comScore earlier this month. Apple took in the remaining 22.9-percent, which is less than the 30.7-percent comScore estimated for the U.S. market:Gartner analysts said the smartphone market has become highly commoditized and differentiation is becoming a challenge for manufacturers. “At the high end, hardware features coupled with applications and services are helping differentiation, but this is restricted to major players with intellectual property assets. However, in the mid to low-end segment, price is increasingly becoming the sole differentiator. This will only worsen with the entry of new players and the dominance of Chinese manufacturers, leading to increased competition, low profitability and scattered market share.”

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::::Airtel nears deal to buy Qualcommâ€˜s 4G licences; RIL eyes 2012-end::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337194519_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div>Bharti Airtel is reportedly in advanced discussions with U.S.-based chipmaker Qualcomm to buy its 4G licences in India – a deal that will help the telecom giant to launch fourth generation services in major markets of Delhi and Mumbai. According to reports, Qualcomm has sought Rs. 50 billion ($928 million) for its Indian units, while the deal is likely to be closed in the next two weeks.Qualcomm had got 4G licences for Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala circles through June 2010 auction. Qualcomm's application for an Internet Service Provider ( ISP) licence was initially turned down due to late submission. Qualcomm later moved telecom tribunal TDSAT, which directed theDoT to grant licence and allocate spectrum to the company. However, the DoT has reduced the licence tenure from 20 years to 18.5 years.Bharti Airtel, meanwhile, has become the first telecom operator to launch 4G services in India. Last month, Airtel announced the launch of fourth generation mobile services in Kolkata. Earlier this month, Airtel launched 4G in Bengaluru and is likely to announce Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra very soon.Acquisition of Qualcomm's 4G licences is likely to help Airtel strengthen its position in the market where it already dominates.Meanwhile, Reliance Industries (RIL) is reportedly planning to launch its 4G services by end of this year. RIL, say sources, was planning to launch 4G services by early 2012 but plans were delayed due to business plan rejig. Also, RIL is still undecided on the technology for its 4G services.

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::::Nokia unveils 110 and 112 entry-level dual-SIM phones::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337193125_temp.jpg" border="0" width="300" height="200" align="left" /></div>Nokia has announced two Series 40-based entry-level dual-SIM phones, Nokia 110 and Nokia 112. Both the phones featurs apps to access social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The 110 and 112 come with Nokia Browser, which the company says brings data consumption down by up to 90 percent.The Nokia 110 features a 1.8-inch (128 x 160 pixels) D5 TFT display, dual-SIM support with Nokia’s unique Easy Swap, VGA camera, microSD card slot,Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR, 3.5 mm AV connector. The 110 has 64MB of built-in storage. The 110 comes with 1,020 mAh battery that is rated to deliver up to 10.5 hours of talk time and up to 26.5 days standby.The Nokia 112 has similar set of features – 1.8-inch (128 x 160 pixels) D5 TFT display, dual-SIM support with Nokia’s unique Easy Swap, VGA camera, 32 GB microSD card support,Bluetooth v2.1 with EDR, 3.5 mm AV connector. The device also has 64MB of built-in storage. However, the 112 has a better 1,400 mAh battery, which is rated to deliver 14 hours talk time and up to 35 days standby.The Nokia 110 will be available in single SIM variants as well – Nokia 111 and Nokia 113 – destined for European and Asian markets only. The single SIM variants will sport similar set of features except that they will come with 800 mAh battery. The Nokia 110 has been priced at EUR 35 (roughly Rs. 2,400) and is likely to ship in the second quarter of this year. The Nokia 112 costs EUR 38, which is approximately Rs. 2,600 and is likely to ship in the third quarter of this year. 

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::::Genpact acquires Atyati Technologies::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337192884_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div> <div class="brightcove_wrap"> </div>  Business process outsourcing firm, Genpact Limited has acquired a technology platform provider for the rural banking sector in India Atyati Technologies for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help Genpact with last mile functionality that allows Indian banks to serve the millions of people who reside in rural areas. This supports the financial inclusion plans of the government of India, the company said in a statement. “Rural India remains an untapped market for banking and financial institutions with opportunities for providers in the banking, insurance and mutual fund sectors.” Atyati’s clients include several of the large Indian public sector banks. Tiger Tyagarajan, president and CEO, Genpact said, “Emerging markets such as India and China are becoming an increasingly important part of our global strategy and we are excited to support these large and critical initiatives of the Indian government and financial sector.”Backed by one of the biggest deals by government in the PC space, ELCOT by the Tamil Nadu government, Lenovo has clinched the top spot in the India PC market with a 15.8% market share in first quarter of the calendar year 2012 according to a report released by IDC India. Dell secured the second spot with 15% share, followed very closely by HP with a 14.9% share.The overall shipments in the Indian PC market during the period also stood at 2.63 million units, registering a sequential gain of 7.7% over the previous quarter while the year-on-year growth was noted to be at 3.5%. Kiran Kumar, senior analyst at IDC said, “The growth in PC volumes are reflective of the rise in consumption levels and investment activity for PCs in the recent past. A spurt in commercial spending was backed by a revival in consumer sentiment towards March”. 

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::::Google Search Just Got 1,000 Times Smarter::::

<h4><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337192756_temp.jpg" border="0" alt="Image" width="300" height="200" align="left" />The Google Search of the future is here. Now. Today. The long-talked-about sematic web — Google prefers “Knowledge Graph” — is rolling out across all Google Search tools, and our most fundamental online task may never be the same again.Starting today, a vast portion of Google Search results will work with you to intuit what you really meant by that search entry. Type in an ambiguous query like “Kings” (which could mean royalty, a sports team or a now-cancelled TV show), and a new window will appear on the right side of your result literally asking you which entity you meant. Click on one of those options and your results will be filtered for that search entity.To understand the gravity of this change, you need to know about the fundamental changes going on behind the scenes at Google Search. As we outlined in our report earlier this year, Google is switching from simple keyword recognition to the identification of entities, nodes and relationships. In this world, “New York” is not simply the combination of two keywords that can be recognized. It’s understood by Google as a state in the U.S. surrounded by other states, the Atlantic Ocean and with a whole bunch of other, relevant attributes.As Ben Gomes, Google Fellow, put it, Google is essentially switching “from strings to things.”To build this world of things, Google is tapping a variety of knowledge databases, including Freebase, which it bought in 2010, Wikipedia, Google Local, Google Maps and Google Shopping. Currently, Google’s Knowledge Graph has over 500 million people, places and things and those things have at least 3.5 billion attributes.That’s a lot of things. According to Google, search users will see these new knowledge graph results at least as often as they see Google Maps in results. In fact, this update will have a greater initial impact than the updates that brought Google Images, videos, news and books, combined. It’s big and it’s probably going to be everywhere.</h4><h2 style="margin: 24px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent">Summaries of Good Stuff</h2>In addition to the window which will help users find the right “thing,” Google will also surface summaries for things, which, again, will try to be somewhat comprehensive by tapping into the various databases of knowledge. A search for Frank Lloyd Wright, for instance, will return a brief summary, photos of Wright, images of his famous projects and perhaps, most interestingly, related “things.” People who search for Wright are also looking for other notable architects. It’s a feature that may remind users of Amazon’s penchant for delivering “people who liked this book also bought or searched for this one” results.Gomes said that the search results are tailored to deliver information that best relates to the initial search result. So the details delivered about a female astronaut will likely outline her space travel record, because that’s what people who search for her are, according to Google, most interested in. <div id="attachment_934921" class="wp-caption alignright" style="float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 285px"><img src="http://6.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/knowledge_graph-thmbnail-275x202.jpg" border="0" alt="Google Knowledge Graph Example Thumbnail" title="Google Knowledge Graph Example Thumbnail" width="275" height="202" />How the Knowledge Graph Works. Click to see full graph example</div>Since this is a knowledge graph (“Web” might be a better word), the results are designed to help you dig more deeply into related topics. Google showed us how someone might start by searching for a local amusement park, find an interesting rollercoaster as one of the “things” that relates to the park and end up digging in on details about that coaster and other similar rides. It’s a “skeleton of knowledge that allows you to explore information on the web,” said Gomes. There is the potential, Gomes added, of serendipitous discovery. The more you dig into things, the more things you learn about.Of course, not every “thing” is the right thing. Wikipedia is, for example, a community-sourced encyclopedia that is known for both its breadth and depth of information and the occasional whoppers of misinformation it stores. Google’s Knowledge Graph includes an error reporting system. When users find misinformation, Google will share it with the source and the knowledge graph will get just a little bit smarterFor now, though, the Knowledge Graph is not getting any smarter about you. If you search for an ambiguous topic and then guide Google Search to the more defined set of results, the same query later will not go directly to that filtered information — at least not yet. “We don’t have anything to announce for personalization,” said Gomes.<h2 style="margin: 24px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent">The Competition</h2>Google’s chief search competitor, Microsoft Bing, also has millions of entities, but it’s not aiming for the purely semantic model of search results. Instead, Bing execs told Mashable that it’s focusing, in part, on much smaller set of segments that its users typically search on (i.e.: restaurants, hotels, movies) and trying to surface relevant information regarding those segments. A search result for hotels, for example, might include reservation tools. And while Google search now blends in Google+ results, Bing’s latest instantiation has moved social information to the right side of its search results pageIt’s unclear for now how the Google Knowledge Graph, which pushes aside keyword results in favor of relationships and artificial intelligence, impacts all the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) many web sites have done to push their search rank ever higher. Also unknown is how, if at all, Google’s sea change will impact Google+. Gomes revealed that some Google+ changes were coming “independent of this” update and that Google will be talking about them separately.Eventually, Google’s search will get smarter and will stop asking for your help to understand your query and start answering complex questions like “What is the coldest lake in the world in July?” It doesn’t matter why you want to know that, just that, someday, the right answer will be a click away on Google Search.Google’s Knowledge Graph will roll out across the U.S. (and on all Google platforms: desktop, mobile, tablet) in the coming days. Eventually, it will go global. Give it a try and let us know what you think of the brand new Google Search in the comments.

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::::Government in final stages of protection against cyber attacks: National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337192019_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div><img src="http://pi.feedsportal.com/r/134204542858/u/53/f/534057/c/33041/s/1f6a6555/a2t.img" border="0" width="1" height="1" />Pointing out that information technology has given power to terrorists and non-state actors,National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon today said the government is "in final stages" of developing capabilities for protecting against cyber attacks. <div id="storydiv" class="storydiv" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px"><div class="Normal" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px"> Releasing an IDSA report on cyber security, he said here that the same technology has enhanced the internal security capabilities through cyber penetration and a "democratic society must draw a line between the collective right to security and the individual's right to privacy".  "The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution has brought power to non-state actors and small groups such as terrorists. It has given small groups and individuals the means to threaten and act against much larger groups.  "Government is in the process of putting in place the capabilities and the systems to deal with this archaic new world of constant and undeclared cyber threat, attack, counter-attack and defence," Menon said.  He said the "government is in the final stages of preparing a whole-of-government cyber security architecture."  The NSA said 120 countries, including all the major powers, are developing offensive cyber capabilities as well as using cyber espionage and so are smaller powers who see ICT as an "equaliser".  "These technologies have also enabled individuals and small groups to use cyber space for their own ends. We in India are subject to unwelcome attention from many of them, state and non-state," he said.</div></div>

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