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Ola/Uber Wants To Gain Monopoly By Using Predatory Pricing – Maharashtra Govt.

by Unknown on October 13, 2017

Maharashtra Govt. has said that Ola and Uber are deliberately introducing predatory pricing to have monopoly over city based taxi services.

Within 24 hours of Meru filing complaint against Ola and Uber, accusing them of abusing their market position, Maharashtra Govt. has filed an affidavit, wherein they have directly accused them of launching predatory pricing for gaining monopoly.

This is indeed a serious charge, that too coming straight from the State Govt.

Will Bombay High Court take action against Ola and Uber?

We will soon find out.

Maharashtra Govt.: Ola/Uber Wants Monopoly
Bombay High Court is right now hearing several petitions against City Taxi Rules, 2017, which was introduced last year in order to regularize online cab hailing services.

While responding to the petitions, Maharashtra Govt. has said that Ola and Uber are deliberately introducing predatory pricing, so that they can have a monopoly over city based taxi services.

In fact, Maharashtra Govt. in their affidavit has said that both Ola and Uber wants to kill competition, especially kaali-peeli taxis in the state.

Maharashtra Govt. said, “The petitioners (Ola, Uber) have predatory tactics, they aspire for a monopoly in the market and want to wipe out competition including the common men who drive the black-and-yellow taxis,”, adding, “Such tactics cannot be permitted by a welfare state like Maharashtra.”

Besides, the affidavit also stated that both Ola and Uber are finalizing prices based on their own methodologies, and there is no regulation or checks to ensure that they are implementing fair prices.

Govt. strongly emphasized on regulating their services, as they said: “Their apps that fix routes, decide fares, are neither regulated, nor subject to any scrutiny,” the affidavit states highlighting a pertinent need to regulate app-based taxi operators.”

The case was filed after Maharashtra Govt., despite creating license system for such cabs, refused to grant licenses, citing one excuse or the other.

In short, Maharashtra Govt. is trying to protect traditional kaali-peeli taxis, and Uber and Ola are fighting this in the Court.

A lot more fireworks are expected, as the case progresses.

Meru Files Complaint Against Ola/Uber
Meru, which is an Indian taxi company, had earlier filed several complaints against Ola and Uber, stating anti-competition stand by them, across India.

As per the complaint, SoftBank is the common investor in both these companies, and together, they are trying to create a monopoly.

Meru’s chief executive officer (CEO) Nilesh Sangoi said: “Even before there is any merger or alliance between the two through global investors, there is already a unified monopoly,”

These allegations are strikingly similar to what Maharashtra Govt. has filed in their affidavit.
Meru’s earlier anti-trust case against Ola and Uber was quashed by Competition Commission of India (CCI) in Bengaluru, as they couldn’t prove the case.

We will keep you updated as we receive more news.

The Keyboard-Less Blackberry Motion Arrives – Price, Specifications, India Launch And More!

by Unknown on October 09, 2017

The new BlackBerry Motion is effectively the last Blackberry KeyOne just without the keyboard and some minor changes. The software is still similar with some changes on the out. The device was showcased at the GITEX Tech Week in Dubai.

BlackBerry after a long period of distress has finally ditched their signature keyboard with Blackberry Motion. BlackBerry is now into making phones in a partnership with Chinese firm TCL, which a few months back released the BlackBerry KeyOne. Now the company has launched a new complete-touch smartphone with no KEYBOARD!

The new BlackBerry Motion is effectively the last Blackberry KeyOne just without the keyboard and some minor changes. The software is still similar with some changes on the out. The device was showcased at the GITEX Tech Week in Dubai.
Blackberry Motion – Specifications and Features
It carries almost the same set of specs as Blackberry KeyOne, but the Blackberry Motion is IP67 water resistant and packs a whopping 4000mAh battery.

Design and Build
The new Blackberry Motion has a very similar built on the out like the Blackberry KeyOne, but without a keyboard. With a unibody design, the phone has a fingerprint scanner on the front and the BB logo at the back.

Display
The BlackBerry Motion will come with a 5.5 inch Full HD IPS LCD display on front with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and a pixel density of 403 ppi. The display has a DragonTrail Glass protection on top, to keep it safe from the scratches.

Hardware
The device will pack in an octa core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor clocking at 2.00GHz, clubbed with 4GB of RAM. It is supported by Adreno 506 GPU.

Software
Blackberry Motion will run Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. No news about the Android Oreo 8.0 update.

Internal Storage
The handset will only come with 32GB of onboard storage, which can be further expanded up to 2TB with the help of an external memory card.

Camera
The Blackberry Motion will come with a 12 megapixel rear shooter with an f/2.0 aperture, coupled with a dual tone LED flash. It can shoot videos in 4K at 30fps. Up front, there is an 8 megapixel front shooter equipped with a selfie flash.

Sim Support and Connectivity
The BlackBerry Motion will support two sims and has all the required sensors on board. It comes with a USB Type C port with 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom.

Battery
The handset houses a whooping 4000 mAh non-removable battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support.

Additional New Features on Blackberry Motion
Apart from a list of specs, the new BlackBerry Motion also includes some interesting features to improve the overall user experience.

1. Smart Convenience Key

One can use the Smart Convenience Key to bring up the apps and functions instantly which you use more often, based on your location. Like in the car you can customize the key to launch your the music app, at home to launch the camera, at work to launch the email app.

2. Locker Mode
One can use the Locker Mode to keep the photos and other files safe. The private pictures or confidential documents with the help of the fingerprint sensor can be password-protected, and these files will not uploaded to the cloud.

3. DTEK Security Suite
This will be very useful for professional people to keep their work safe and secure. There is DTEK enabled security suite feature on the Blackberry Motion, which will support the FIPS 140-2 Full Disk Encryption, Android For Work and Google Play for Work features.

4. Water Resistance
The new Blackberry Motion is IP67 certified, so it’s water resistant. It can survive all accidental spills and can stay in the water for a bit of time with no harm or damage to the handset.

Price and India Launch
The Blackberry Motion has been priced at $460 (around Rs. 30,000) and is now available in some Middle Eastern markets (including Saudi Arabia and the UAE). The phone might make it to the Indian market by the end of this year, though there has been no official mention.

Preliminary Verdict
The Blackberry Motion has focused mainly on security and intends to make the handset a ‘business and privacy’ friendly smartphone. But there are other touch-only phones at this range (say, OnePlus 5 or Honor 8 Pro or Nokia 8) which offer faster performance and a better set of specs.

The Blackberry Motion clearly targets the line of business customers and may find it hard to break into the market which already has so many great phones at this range. (Watch out Blackberry Fans!)

Surprise! Jio Play Beats Netflix And Amazon; Hotstar On Top!

by Unknown on October 06, 2017

Jio's 2nd position is the biggest surprise here as is Netflix's last position!

Jio Play, which was launched last year in September along with Jio’s telecom services, has become India’s 2nd largest on-demand entertainment app. This steep rise of Jio Play within 12 months is indeed an amazing case study to understand the impact of almost free Internet provided by Jio.

These numbers were revealed in the latest report on the performance of on-demand entertainment apps by App Annie.

And the surprising news: Hotstar is #1 in this category, as Netflix falls to #5.

App Genie Report For August: Hotstar At #1
The report highlights the fact that after the number of eyeballs watching TV has become less than those watching a smartphone’s screen, the rise of on-demand entertainment apps in India is amazing.

Add to it the factor of subsidized, sub-Rs5000 smartphones, and we have a massive audience of Internet savvy Indians, hungry for on-demand entertainment on the go.

Hotstar has emerged as India’s #1 entertainment app, as they dominated both the number of users and number of hours spent on the app.

Compared to August last year, Hotstar demonstrated 100% increase in user base: they have 67.5 million users right now, compared to 33 million last year in August.

On the same hand, hours spent on their app was 15,574 million minutes in August 2017, which is double of 4,739.8 million minutes last year in August.

Surprise Of The Year: Jio Play Beats Netflix!
But the biggest surprise in this report was the amazing rise of Jio Play within 12 months.

Netflix, which has revolutionized the concept of on-demand entertainment, and is the biggest player globally, has been humbled by Jio Play in India.

As per the report, Jio Play has, at the end of August, 45.46 million users, which is 4X that of Amazon Video, and 9X of Netflix.

On the other hand, the total number of minutes spent on Jio Play was 7642 million minutes in August, which was zero last year!

No doubt Netflix also managed to massively increase their user base, as they have 5.37 million users in August, 2017, compared to 2.56 million last year. Besides, the total number of hours spent on Netflix in August this year was 1,563.5 million minutes, which is 150% more compared to August 2016.

Interestingly, Amazon Video also experienced massive boost in both, number of users and total minutes spent. And, in both the counts, they have also beaten Netflix by a comfortable margin.

While Hotstar is free, it also comes with a Rs 199 subscription plan. Netflix charges Rs 700 per month and Amazon Video is bundled with Amazon Prime, which costs Rs 499 per year, but very soon is going to be Rs 999.

Which is your favorite entertainment app? Do let us know by commenting right here!

Indian Railways Bans WhatsApp For All Employees; Will It Improve Safety & Security Of Trains?

by Unknown on October 05, 2017

Railway employees have been found to use WhatsApp and YouTube heavily

Since last few days, we have witnessed an alarming increase in number of mishaps happening on the tracks of Indian Railways. Critics have been blaming Indian Railways for their careless attitude, and pinpointing additional expenses like bullet trains for this.

Newly appointed Railways Minister Piyush Goel has made it clear that security and safety is the top priority of Railways. ISRO was roped in to provide exact GPS location and other details for enhancing safety of all trains.

In this same endeavor, WhatsApp, the most popular messenger in the world, has been banned for all railway staff. And the reason is that, WhatsApp can distract the staff, and hence cause accidents.

Is that the case? We explore..

No WhatsApp For Indian Railways Staff
Delhi division of Indian Railways has issued a fresh circular, wherein all associated staff members have been banned from using WhatsApp.

Most probably, this decision was inspired by Railway board chairman Ashwani Lohani, who had recently issued a strict advisory for all staff members, asking them to be alert at all possible time period.

The current circular to ban WhatsApp has been issued for all maintenance and safety staff such as trackmen, gang men guards on railway crossings, loco pilots and train guards.

In fact, even loco drivers and station managers and ticket checkers have been asked, not to use WhatsApp during their duty hours.
An unnamed official said, “It was noted that several staff associated with the safety department or the operational staff were indulging in WhatsApp and YouTube during working hours. This caused major distraction and thus compromised passenger safety. They have been told not to use these apps and entertainment medium and perform their duty with greater efficiency and alertness,”

Interestingly, the diktat has been issued mainly for WhatsApp, not YouTube, which has also been found to be heavily used by Railway staff members.

Besides, the circular has ordered all drivers and guards to stay extra alert, not only for their own trains, but also for trains arriving from opposite direction.

They are asked to keep on checking tracks, and report any obstruction or unnatural activity.

Note here, that as per existing rules, drivers and guards are required to switch off their phones during their duty hours, and they are not even allowed to leave the locomotive to attend nature’s call.

Earlier, Minister Goyal had asked 200 officers from the headquarters to be assigned ground duty, and check tracks at regular intervals. He has even banned AC Class travel for top officials, and ordered them to travel in normal sleeper and general class to understand the true issues of the passengers.

But.. WhatsApp Was Used For Complaint Management
This ban on WhatsApp can be termed as surprising, because in June this year, Railways created a special WhatsApp group for monitoring cleanliness at various stations. This was done at Lucknow division of Northern Railways, and at least 25 different WhatsApp groups were created for 25 different railway stations.

Divisional railway manager (DRM), NR, Lucknow, Satish Kumar had said, “Train has old coaches and there were many complaints about the train. We were not able to do away with all of them during our routine maintenance of the train. Having created a WhatsApp group has helped. Number of complaints have reduced,”

Way back in 2014, such similar WhatsApp group was created in Bhopal division as well.

But, will banning WhatsApp improve security and safety of trains? This is indeed a debatable question. Do share your opinions by commenting right here!

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5: Renders, Specifications, Price And India Launch!

by Unknown on October 03, 2017

The Note 5 has big shoes to fill after the success of it predecessor

Xiaomi recently launched Redmi Note 5A in China running the latest version of MIUI 9. Now, with a series of leaks and rumours, it appears that Xiaomi is getting ready with their next Redmi Note. Redmi Note 4 was a huge hit in India, and the anticipation of Redmi Note 5 is very high.

The company recently launched their mid-range dual camera smartphone Mi A1 in the country under Google’s Android One initiative. Redmi Note 5 is still waiting for a launch in China, and the smartphone will probably make it to India by December.
Leaked Report
91mobiles have created and released renders of the Redmi Note 5, based on speculations and leaks so far. They suggest that the Redmi Note 5 will carry over a lot of design cues and general features from it’s predecessor, the Redmi Note 4. The Redmi Note 5 will come in an all metal finish with a unibody design, like most of Xiaomi’s phones in 2017. It was also leaked that the Redmi Note 5 will come with a dual rear camera setup which will comprise of a16MP and a 5MP sensor. In another report by Android Headlines, live images of the Redmi Note 5 retail box were leaked.

Redmi Note 5 – Specifications and Features
The Redmi Note 5 is overdue for a launch now. It is possible that it may be launched alongside the Note 5 Plus. Here in India, we will get only one of the. Though which one, is still unknown.

The retail box comes with a ‘5 Plus’ branding, and the Redmi Note 5 and Note 5 Plus are expected to come with similar specs.

Design and Build
The Redmi Note 5 will feature an all-metal finish with a unibody design. It will sport a fingerprint scanner at the back below the dual camera setup. There will be capacitive buttons on the front panel, as we have seen on the other Redmi smartphones.

Display

The device will sport a 5.5” full HD 1920 x 1080 pixels display with a 401 PPI pixel density, complemented by narrow bezels. It will come with Corning Gorilla Glass protection on top.
Hardware
There is a rumoured Mediatek processor model of the Redmi Note 5. There will be one more model that will carry Qualcomm’s 64-bit octa core Snapdragon 630 or Snapdragon 660 chipset based on the 14nm process coupled with 3GB or 4GB of RAM.

Software
The Note 5 is expected to run Android Nougat 7.1.2 out of the box, with the latest version of MIUI 9 on top.

Internal Storage
The device will come with two storage options, 32GB and 64GB. The memory can be further expanded up to 128GB with the help of hybrid SIM slot.

Camera
The leaks have revealed that Redmi Note 5 will sport a dual camera setup at the back. There will be two sensors, 16MP and 5MP. They seem to be positioned vertically in the middle of the rear panel. There will be a dual tone LED flash just below the dual cameras. The main camera will feature an f/2.0 aperture. A 12-megapixel shooter is being expected to be included at the front.

Sim Support And Connectivity
As with all Redmi series phones till now, the device will come with a hybrid SIM slot. The phone will support 4G VoLTE, USB Type C port, a 3.5mm audio jack and an IR blaster.

Battery
The Note 5 is expected to pack in a 3790mAh or 4000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support.

Variants And Price
In our last report, we had reported that the Redmi Note 5 will be available in three variants. The 3GB+32GB will cost around Rs. 11,999/-, 4GB+32GB will cost around Rs. 13,999/- and the 4GB+64GB will cost around Rs. 14,999/-. These are expected prices as there is no official word from Xiaomi yet.

Presently, we are still awaiting any official confirmation about the unveiling of ‘Xiaomi Redmi 5’ and/or ‘Xiaomi Redmi 5 Plus’. We will keep you posted in case of further updates.

Google Transparency Report: User Data Requests From Indian Govt. At All Time High!

by Unknown on October 02, 2017

This is the first time Indian Govt. is so keen on knowing users data!

Google is pretty serious when it comes to privacy of data, and data transparency. Starting from 2010, Google has been publishing their annual Google Transparency Report, wherein they make the records public regarding user data requests from law enforcement agencies and Govt. of any country.

They have just released a teaser report for user data requests made by Indian Govt., and as per the numbers, it has been found that such user data requests made by Indian Govt. is at an all time high.

In fact, ever since Google started publishing this report, this is for the first time that Indian Govt. is so keen to know user’s private data.

Google Transparency Report: 3843 User Data Requests From Indian Govt!
In the first half of 2017, that from January to June, Indian Govt. made total of 3843 requests to obtain user data from 6343 user accounts. Google has only provided data for 54% of this request.

For the same period last year, there were 3452 such requests for users data, from 6207 user accounts. This means that this year, there were 391 more requests for sensitive user data. Between July – December, 2017, there were total of 3449 user data requests from 6393 user accounts, and Google fulfilled just 57% of these data requests.

These data requests have been made via Govt. India, various courts, law enforcement agencies and civil litigation departments, under Govt. of India..

If we compare globally, then the total number of data requests made to Google has increased. Overall, Google has received 48,941 user data requests for from 83,345 Google accounts, all over the world (between January to June 2017). This is 4000 more compared to same period last year.
Globally, this year, Google has compiled with 65% of the data requests, thereby exposing 54,000 user accounts.

We don’t need to speculate what happened with them.

In a statement, Google said, “When we receive such a request, our team reviews the request to make sure it satisfies legal requirements and Google’s policies,”

Which Cases Were Sought After By Govt.?
Google hasn’t yet uploaded the exact cases, for which Govt. sought user data information for the period January to June, 2017.

However, if we look back a year, then we find exact incidents, which prompted Govt. to seek user data from Google.

Some of the prominent ones are:

Cyber Crime Cell of the Chennai requested 2000 YouTube videos to be removed, which were infringing MEGA TV’s copyright. (Videos were not taken down)
Department of Electronics and Information Technology had asked Google to delist several results related with gender tests and sex determination tests (listings were removed, which we applaud and appreciate)
Hazratganj Cyber Crime Enforcement Agency from Lucknow asked Google to remove a YouTube video wherein a police cop is seen slapping an elderly man (video was not removed)
Punjab Government asked to remove few news articles, which exposed drug scam. These news articles were not removed.
Mumbai police asked Google to remove allegedly obscene and defamatory images of Shri Balasaheb Thackrey, founder of Shiv Sena. The images were instantly removed.

You can view the entire list of such user data requests and subsequent action by Google here. (data for first half 2017 hasn’t been uploaded yet.)

Airtel 5G Rolled Out In Kolkata, Bengaluru – 5G Wave Hits India

by Unknown on October 01, 2017

5G is about to take over the telecom market in India!

The 5th generation wireless systems, or 5G in short, is about to take over the telecom market in India. Since last 48 hours, several new developments have been reported with respect to 5G deployment in India, both from private and Govt. sector.

Government’s stand in this regard is especially encouraging, because now, they are determined to deploy 5G across the country by 2020.

And, not to be left behind, private sector has already taken the initiative, as Airtel has launched India’s first 5G capable network in India.

For tech enthusiasts, this is indeed a good time to be alive.

Airtel Launches India’s 1st 5G Capable Network
Silicon Valley of India, Bengaluru and superstar metropolis of yesteryears, Kolkata have become the lucky Indian cities to get India’s first 5G cities. Airtel has just deployed Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), which has been claimed to be India’s first 5G capable network.

This has been done under Airtel’s Project Leap network transformation program, wherein the network capability has been expanded by three to seven times, using the same spectrum.

In short, Airtel users will now be able to access Internet faster, much faster.
Explaining the technicalities, Airtel said in a statement: “Massive MIMO creates 3D beams both on horizontal and vertical planes towards users located within its coverage footprint. This helps in improving coverage and reducing interference across users in different beams, thereby improving signal quality (SINR) by 2-3dB. Serving multiple users by re-using same set of resource blocks (MU-MIMO) with improved signal quality helps in improving user experience, cell capacity and spectrum efficiency,”

Technically, Airtel has described this as “pre-5G technology”, which will help Airtel users to access better coverage inside buildings and underground locations.

Govt. Of India Determined For Compete 5G Rollout
Meanwhile Govt. of India has said that want the entire nation to be equipped and powered with 5G network, by 2020.

A high level committee of Ministers from telecom, information and technology have been formed, which will oversee the deployment of 5G, in the next 3 years, pan-India.

Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha said, “We missed the opportunity to participate when the standards were being set for 3G and 4G, but don’t want to miss the 5G opportunity. Now when the standards are being set for 5G across the world, India will also participate in the process,”

As per the initial plan, every urban location in the country would be provided with 10 Gbps broadband speed, and rural locations would be covered under 1 Gbps speed.

TRAI has already released consultation paper to seek feedback related with 3300-3400 Mhz and 3400-3600 Mhz bands which would be used for 5G network.

Explaining the requirement for 5G, the Minister said, “As per the OECD Committee on Digital Economic Policy, it has been stated that 5G technologies rollout will help in increasing GDP, creating employment, and digitizing the economy,”

Do you India is ready for 5G? Do let us know by commenting right here!