Last week an Indian company EC media launched India’s first e-reader—the Wink, especially tailored to serve the country needs, like ability to support 15 Indian regional languages and an extensive tie up with India prominent publishing companies for varied content(the Wink is expected to give owners access to more than 500,000 books, journals, newspapers and magazines). The specs of the e-reader look good. Obviously the company intends to see its E-reader in as many Indian hands as possible.
But all this raises one important and basic question:
Is India Ready for E-Readers? Or Have Indians transitioned from traditional books to e-Books?
While a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts study reported that Americans were spending less time reading books, a Maryland-based market research firm recently found out that e-reader owners read more than they earlier did.
Below are some data from some recent studies to help arrive at some answer:
1) Only 42% of the people that buy books in India are habitual readers (according to a survey in Tehelka Magazine).
2) 20% of the people said they had read e-books. 92% of them read those e-books on a PC, and not on reading devices like Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Daily Reader(according to a survey in Tehelka Magazine).
3) According to a survey by the National Council of Applied Economic Research published in the Financial Express “there are only around 83 million non-syllabus book readers in India”. The study focused on literate youth all over the country.
4) Some of the biggest buyers of books in India are libraries, and they only buy bound books.
Basic Wink XTR, has started selling at Chroma electronics stores for 11,490 rupees from today.
It’s only to be seen how Indian buyers respond to it.
Do you think India has reached a stage where it’s ready for a device that is primarily for reading?
According to Comscore, Facebook is now number one social network in India with over 20.8 million monthly visits from India – marginally above Orkut which has 19.8 million.
Below are the top ten social networks in India in terms of unique visitors in July 2010:
1. Facebook : 20.87 million
2. Orkut : 19.87 million
3. BharatStudent : 4.32 million
4. Yahoo Pulse : 3.5 million
5. Twitter : 3.34 million
6. LinkedIn : 3.26 million
7. Zedge : 3.2 million
8. Ibibo : 2.96 million
9. Yahoo Buzz : 1.8 million
10. Shtyle : 1.55 million
Samsung Craft on MetroPCS becomes world's first LTE phone , to be launched in September
Labels: Announcements, Tech24hours US
Samsung has confirmed that it would launch the world’s first LTE phone (LTE or 4G)-- Samsung Craft r900 in September.
The phone will be available in the US via regional carrier MetroPCS ( currently has more than 7.6 million subscribers).
Phone features:
1) A slide-out QWERTY keyboard
2) A touchscreen display
3) A 3.2MP camera
4) is not a smartphone and uses Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.
Price: The handset should cost $300 free of contract (this price is not confirmed, though).
One of the markets where MetroPCS will offer LTE services this year likely starting September, is the Las Vegas metropolitan area.
Nokia N8 and C3 to start selling in India in mid-September, Nokia C6 in October
Labels: smartphones, Tech24Hours India
Three new Nokia handsets will soon be launched in India --the world’s second largest mobile market. The handsets are Nokia N8, Nokia C3 and Nokia C6.
Nokia India informs that while Nokia N8 and C3 are scheduled for for a mid-September launch so far. Those intending to buy the third one, the Nokia C6 – will have to wait till October.
Notably, the phones are being launched around the same time in Europe and the US.
Retail Price in India:
 |
| Nokia N8 |
Nokia N8: Rupees 25,000 (not the official disclosure from Nokia, but is simply based on the amount people in US and Europe are shelling out to pre-order the handset)
A Symbian^3 smartphone
 |
| Nokia C3 |
Nokia C3: Rupees 6700 approx.
The C3 is a QWERTY and Wi-Fi-equipped S40 phone that should not cost more than $130.
 |
| Nokia C6 |
Nokia C6: Ruppes 15,500 approx.
Based on Symbian ^1, the phone features a 360 x 640 pixels touchscreen display, GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, sliding QWERTY keyboard, and a 5MP autofocus camera with flash.
Mozilla has released an alpha version of its mobile browser for smartphones running Google's Android operating system.
According to Mozilla, Fennec 2.0, which is built on the same Gecko engine that powers the better-known Firefox 4, adds integrated synchronization and boosts performance by separating user interface and rendering processes.
Fennec 2.0 alpha includes:
1) Electrolysis: Allows the browser interface to run in a separate process from the one rendering Web content. This result in Fennec being able to react much faster to user input while pages are loading or CPU intensive JavaScript is running.
2) Sync service (the same service which Mozilla included in its Firefox 4 Beta): The service keeps bookmarks, passwords, browser history, open tabs and other data consistent across multiple computers and smartphones. Notably Sync was available in previous versions of Firefox too, but it needed add-ons. But Mozilla has inbuilt Sync in Firefox 4 Beta and Fennec 2.0.
Android smartphone owners can download Fennec 2.0 from Mozilla's mobile site.
Sony Ericsson has unveiled a Phone Analyzer application with Facebook Connect.
This unique application allows users to discover which of the brand's five handsets is best for them.
To recommend five handsets most suitable for a user, the company depends on how the particular user uses his/her Facebook profile.
The app uses criteria such as social network scope, visual components, sharing activity and networking activity to determine which of the five phones is most suitable for the individual. Giving a description of what it thinks the users will need in their phone, the app then makes a selection based on its assessment. The individuals are then directed to the relevant page on the brands website, further describing the features and benefits of the phone that was chosen for them.
To get your five Sony handsets, You can log into the feature through Facebook Connect, following which the application will pick one of five phones for you depending on your Facebook activity. The trove of handsets from which five most useful for you will be retrieved include the three newest models in the Xperia™ range-- the X10, X10 mini and X10 mini pro, and also the Vivaz™ and Vivaz™ pro.
Financial Times Report has once again started the speculation about Facebook’s worth.
The report pegs the current Facebook worth at more than $33 billion.
The rationale behind the jaw-dropping valuation is :
1) Yahoo, which has recorded no growth, has a valuation of $18 billion
2) And somewhat plateauing (or stable growth) eBay comes in at $30 billion
3) Facebook, on the other hand, is still growing.
Although Facebook is increasing its user base with a high growth rate(over 500 million users at present), and is challenging Google time and again as world’s most visited web property; plus many users and experts are finding Facebook Ads very effective; Still,by most estimates will have revenue of only $1 billion to $1.5 billion this year. So until Facebook goes public, no one knows for sure, any number is at best speculative.
The MerchSource made device has a seven-inch, 800×480 LCD to show cover art and photos in books. It also sports Wi-Fi to get online but only uses it for downloading books from Kobo’s online bookstore.
The device uses a Kindle-like keyboard below the screen and side buttons for turning pages.
This model will arrive in October for $159 at stores like Best Buy, Bed, Bath & Beyond, JC Penney, Kohl’s and Macy’s.
Parents try just launched AOL SafeSocial for Kids for Free
Labels: Announcements, Being Informed Is Being Safe, Social Networking
Do you always remain concerned about you kid’s online security; every time your kid ventures social networks in you absence. If yes then, AOL’s just launched new service, SafeSocial that protects kids on the internet; may provide you with much needed peace of mind.
SafeSocial grants access to key pieces of information about kids’ internet accounts, social media friends, photos and posts with key words that respond to danger. Ya, you also have to put some work in choosing the right keywords to make the service effective.
A signature of the tool is the fact that here kids have to agree to their parents’ use of SafeSocial. In other words, SafeSocial is less like spying than say, supervising with permission. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or not as, as this makes the kid and the parent a party and instinctively makes the parent less complaining about the loop holes. But if this particular step has been taken to get kid into confidence; who themselves think they are more careful while on Web, compared to their parents. Then this makes the service effective.
AOL launched SafeSocial by licensing SocialShield’s technology, buyers can be sure of improving service in coming days.
AOL is curently offering a free 30 day trial for the new product, after which it costs $9.99 per month.
How SafeSocial safeguards your kid while online:
1) The product has the ability to screen kids’ friends across 50 different databases (read social networks).
2) Once a user enrolls in the free trial, the data parents get about their kids’ information is organized pretty clearly in a dashboard format with easy-to-access tabs for exploring other aspects of their online presence. Like which friends said some inappropriate content (although the service will flag many common inappropriate keywords; it’s up to a parent to make the product more effective by adding more effective keywords); or which of the friends are adults (based on that friend’s age submitted).
3) The service notifies a parent with an Alert whenever someone among kid’s friends indulges suspicious and/or worrying conversations. These conversations include profanity and language about drugs, sex, violence, alcohol and suicide.
4) SafeSocial will also flag friends who show up in national criminal databases of the country. But while the friends page is all about age, gender and mutual friend details, kids’ general posts and conversations are only summarized, which counters against invasion of privacy. However, parents have the option of looking at their kids’ full conversations if they feel it’s necessary.
Think Mobile finds the product effective. Right now parents can try the product for free for 30 days.
Digg has launched a new version of itself—Digg v4.
News many social media enthusiasts and Digg users have been following for quite some time. Attribute it to the crowd marching towards new Digg or coincidence; the site went down within moments of the launch.
What is new?
Those who have previous versions of Digg know that Digg never told them to make friends or follow the glitterati of the Digg. Although Digg did start opening it up names for some time now; when it told users to share stories from small blogs and websites along with big.
But new Digg asks new users at the sign up; to follow others from his/her Google, Facebook and twitter friends and from a series of lists created by Digg (just like twitter does).
Hence the new Digg has an increased emphasis on social; something more and more book marking and sharing services doing now. In addition one can expect more Digg integration with social networks in coming days.
Looks-wise New Digg doesn’t look too different from the old one.
One notable addition is “Digg's version of a Twitter "fail whale", like twitter,whenever Digg suffers or will suffer the impact of over capacity—“an Oregon trail wagon or a bullock cart over loaded with a broken axle appears.
