Tech News Stop - Sharing by Wasim Akhtar

::::11 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Gmail's New Interface::::

<h4><img src="http://9.mshcdn.com/wp-content/gallery/11-tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-gmails-new-interface/Display%20Density.png" border="0" alt="1. Display Density" width="400" align="left" /></h4>An easy fix, head to your Settings button and select a display density. 'Compact' makes your inbox shrink down to a tidy, manageable list.New Gmail launched to all users on April 23, and a lot people are still getting used to the new look. If you don’t have the time or energy to investigate at all the new features, try some of our tips and tricks above. We’ve highlighted 11 Gmail options that will help you adjust to the new design. Some are cosmetic, while others improve efficiency. Either way, these tips will have you Gmail-fluent in no time. Are you happy with new Gmail? Cast your vote in the following poll, and share your Gmail tips and tricks in the comments below. What Do You Think About the Gmail Redesign?

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::::How to Maximize Your Facebook Engagement::::

<img src="http://7.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/facebook-mobile-app-600.jpg" border="0" alt="facebook-mobile-app-600" width="275" height="171" align="left" />If you have a Facebook page, you likely know how important it is to get likes and comments. Without those, your EdgeRank suffers, and your posts are seen by fewer fans in the future. Facebook has already admitted that the average Facebook page only reaches about 17% of its fans. Since less than 1 to 2% of fans go back to your page, EdgeRank and newsfeed visibility are critical. When you get a new fan, you have the opportunity to keep them engaged. If you don’t, they’ll simply stop reading your posts. Here are some of the things you should keep in mind as you determine how best to engage your Facebook customers. <h2>Which Days are Your Fans Most Responsive?</h2> You need to maximize likes and comments to be visible to fans. Part of getting better engagement results is knowing which days of the week your fans are most and least responsive. This is different for every company and industry. Knowing the best day of the week for all Facebook pages won’t help you with your brand. So even if the best overall day is Tuesday, your company’s best day might be Sunday.For example, recent research indicated that the most responsive day for high-fashion brand pages is Wednesday, while the most responsive day for outdoor clothing brand pages is Thursday. Why should brands care? Well, even if you post every day, your greatest focus should go to those days when followers are most responsive. So, if your best day is on the weekend, make sure you have that covered. It also turns out that the best days of the week to post on Facebook are not always the same days brands create the most posts. Sometimes it’s a Sunday, and maybe no one is working. It appears that the amount a brand posts is not based on their most responsive days, but perhaps just on convenience or coincidence. <h2>Case Study: Chanel</h2> When you compare individual companies, you see that the days they do the most posts are not the same days that they get the most likes and comments per post. For example, see the following charts:  Here is when Chanel posts the most (average posts per day over 90 days): <img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1072935" src="http://5.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Facebook_Page_Data_Shows_Some_Brands_Aren.jpg" border="0" title="Facebook_Page_Data_Shows_Some_Brands_Aren" width="610" height="380" /> And here is when their fans are the most responsive (likes + comments per post): <img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1072937" src="http://4.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/g2.jpg" border="0" title="g2" width="610" height="380" /> Chanel’s fans are most responsive on Saturdays, but it’s their second-to-least posted on day of the week. Most likely, their social media person isn’t working that day, and they’re not scheduling posts for that day. Without realizing it, they’re missing out on a lot of likes and comments, which of course hurts their Edgerank and lowers their fan page’s post visibility. This highlights that you shouldn’t post most when it’s convenient for you, but when your fans are most responsive.  <h2>How to Maximize the Most Engaging Days</h2> If you want to figure out this data for your page, here are the steps: <ul> <li>1. Go to your Facebook page insights and click on likes.</li> <li>2. Click on export data. Choose post level data, then select at least a two-month range so you have a good sample.</li> <li>3. Save it and open it in Excel.</li> <li>4. There’s not a quick way in Excel to group dates by day of week, but with a bit of manual work, you can find the average lifetime of engaged users per post, per day of the week.</li> </ul> The only shortcoming here is that the data is limited by how good and engaging your posts have been. It’s better to look at 10 to 20 brand pages per industry. You will have to manually look at hundreds of posts, or find a way to scrape that data. Then you can find the average likes and comments per post, per day of the week across an entire industry. If one of your competitors is doing a much better job at getting likes and comments, you might want to follow their lead. It could be, in part, the days of the week they post, and also the type and quality of content.

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::::Yahoo's Five Counter-Counterclaims Against Facebook. #1: Throw Out Retaliatory Patents::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335581153_temp.png" border="0" align="left" /></div>Today Yahoo hit Facebook with five big counter-counterclaims designed to invalidate the patents cited in the social network's infringement countersuit. If the court concurs, Facebook could be left wide-open in settlement negotiations, and might have to pay Yahoo a hefty sum of cash and/or stock. Specifically, the old web portal claims that after it sued for patent infringement, Facebook bought patents 'for purposes of retaliation'. Therefore they don't meet the U.S. Patent Office's 'Duty of Disclosure, Candor, and Good Faith' and should be thrown out of Facebook's countersuit against Yahoo. Yahoo also claims Facebook broke their agreement to inform each other of IP issues, couldn't legally know if Yahoo was violating its patents, and that several of Facebook's new patents were illegally filed. Finally, Yahoo filed two more advertising patent infringement claims against Facebook that look to be quite incriminating. Here's breakdown of the five claims and how they'll influence the outcome of the case.

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::::Apple TV set chatter heats up with rumored content talks::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335581583_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px">Apple is once again said to be talking up a TV set when trying to ink deals with content providers.<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px">The latest target is said to be Epix, a joint venture of Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM. According toReuters, the movie channel has been in talks with Apple to bring its content to Apple's digital stores.<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px">The interesting tidbit, Reuters says, is that Apple's been pitching a deal that would bring the content beyond its $99 set top box, and to "upcoming devices that stream content." That could be Apple's TV set, a product that hasn't been announced, but is largely expected to be sometime this year, Reuters suggests.<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px">An Apple spokesman declined to comment, saying the report was "speculation."<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px">Epix is already available on a wide variety of devices, including Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch andiPad, but like HBO GO -- and unlike Hulu Plus and Netflix -- it requires authentication from a supporting service provider. I.e., a user has to already subscribe to a cable or satellite channel.<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px">In August, 2010 Epix and Netflix reached a multiyear deal that would bring Epix content to Netflix 90 days after it first appeared on pay TV and on demand channels. Reuters notes that that deal, which Netflix pays $200 million a year for, is up in September.<p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased; border-width: 0px; padding: 0px">Apple is expected to make full use of its existing content deals, while possibly introducing new ones that would give would-be cord cutters a way to ditch their existing cable service to watch TV programming. Some analysts have even suggested Apple will offer a pay-by-channel model.

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::::GiftCardsIndia.in records topline revenue of Rs 5 crore in first year of operations::::

<img src="http://www.indiadigitalreview.com/sites/default/files/GCIlogo.jpg" border="0" width="238" height="125" align="left" /> Ecommerce service provider SociaLinked, which had launchedGiftCardsIndia.in as an online aggregator of gift vouchers and certificates in India in February 2011, has said that the portal has recorded topline revenue of 1 Million USD (Rs 5 crore) in the first year of operations with 60,000 cards sold. The company also claims that the portal now sells 160 brands on the network.Besides this, in the first year, the company also launched a white label solution where corporates can have employee dedicated gift card shop and avail them at a discount. The company has also roped in Malur Narayan who is a VP at TCS and their top man for business development globally to its Board of Advisors. Narayan joins Sankarson Banerjee former CEO of FutureBazaar.com and current CTO of IIFL, Virendra Chhatbar former CFO Future Bazaar. 

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::::Samsung overtakes Nokia as world's top handset vendor::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335580221_temp.jpg" border="0" align="left" /></div>South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) overtook Nokia (NOK1V.HE) as the world's top handset maker for the first time in the first quarter, ending the Finnish firm's 14-year reign, a report by research firm Strategy Analytics showed on Friday.Samsung sold 93.5 million handsets in the first quarter, taking 25.4 percent of the global mobile phone market, Strategy Analytics said.Nokia sold 82.7 million phones and had 22.5 percent of the market, followed by Apple's (AAPL.O) 9.5 percent.

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::::Infosys wage freeze has to do with high bench they have::::

<div class="custm_img_blk"><img src="http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1335579758_temp.png" border="0" align="left" /></div>Viju George, Executive Director, JPMorgan, in a chat shares his views on IT earnings.  All four large companies have declared their numbers. There is a huge disparity between what TCS has guided, whatInfosys has admitted, how Wipro has shared future outlook versus what HCL has guided. That is correct. The results point to a mixed picture as far as the health of near-term demand in the IT sector is concerned. This is not surprising. In terms of industry growth slowing down from 11% to 14%, there will be polarisation in performance within the largecap sector.  So companies like TCS, Cognizant, etc., should go well ahead of 15%. Hence, by definition, other companies would come well below that. In times of slowing growth, polarisation of performance in largecaps is much more than 04-08.  Certain companies are facing structural issues as well; we can particularly highlight Infosys here. They have a fairly ambitious agenda to get things back on track. It is a mix of both these factors at play.  The quarterly performance in the outlook commentary from managements has been a bit confusing. Which side are you on? Is the demand environment bleak as Infosys' management points out or is it showing signs of improvement as TCS is indicating? How would you peg the big four now? The demand environment is better today than three to six months back. Data points in the US are easing. This will transalate the lag into better returns for those focused on winning market share. Infosys has company-specific issues. They are just blaming the environment for the things that are impacting them at the company-specific level.  It goes back to who is winning market share in the current environment. Clearly, if you have to win market share, you are winning it against your peers as opposed to 04 to 08.  I would not say this is the last thing on the matter. Early May, Cognizant will declare its earnings and they should give a sense of the direction the IT sector is going. My sense is things will be alright. Demand is certainly better today than three to six months back, but only some companies are gaining market share at their peers' expense.  What is the pecking order for you considering you have been the first one to point out structural issues faced by Infy? The pecking order would be TCS, Wipro, HCL Tech and Infosys. Let me take you through the upsides we are looking at. We are looking at a barely 10% upside in TCS, considering the stock has moved up. But it is the stock to hold on to. Investors do not have much confidence in Infosys getting its act together. So, TCS remains a stock to go to.  From a differentiated performance, despite not an enthusing Q1 FY13 guidance, we can give the benefit to Wipro. We think it is a one off and the company can gets it act together starting Q2 FY13. Therefore, from an upside potential perspective, Wipro can give you anywhere between 15% and 20% in a year.  HCL has been a good performer. They are winning market share, not just against Indian competitors but also against global counterparts like IBM and Accenture. We should see a 10% to 12% there. The real laggard is Infosys. Unless, it can get its issues back together and resolve them meaningfully, even meeting the 8% to 10% guidance on an organic basis looks difficult.  What are the chances of Infosys getting their mojo back? They have a utilisation rate of 70%. If the demand environment picks up, they could surprise you on the upside because they are still hiring. There are two ways to look at it. Utilisation is low because the company has not been able to generate demand. Since utilisation is low, I am in a position to capitalise on demand when it comes -- this is not a fair argument.  The fact remains that you should be in a position to capitalise on demand. Today, Infosys' ability to generate or capitalise on demand is certainly much weaker than a year ago. In that sense, you are making an error trying to hire and keeping utilisation low.  This limits your ability to give wage increases. So I suspect that Infosys' decision to not give wage increases and to freeze wage hikes has to do with a very high bench that they have. If you are unable to generate demand, low utilisation can be a problem for you.

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