<p> <i> 21.38 pm </i> LG G Flex 2 curved smartphone launched at Rs 55,000

LG India is launching only the 32GB variant of the
smartphone, which will hit the market later this month.

NEW DELHI: South Korean manufacturer LG has unveiled its second-generation curved screen smartphone G Flex 2 in the Indian market. Priced at Rs 55,000, this smartphone will hit the shelves later this month. 

The new LG G Flex 2 has a 5.5-inch P-OLED screen with Full HD resolution and comes with Android 5.0-based Optimus UI. LG is launching only the 32GB variant of the smartphone in India; the model comes with Snapdragon 810 (four Cortex A53 cores @ 1.5GHz + four Cortex A57 cores @ 2GHz) and 3GB RAM. 

The rear camera of G Flex 2 has 13MP resolution with laser autofocus, optical image stabilization and dual-LED flash, while the front camera has 2.1MP resolution. The smartphone has a 3,000mAh battery with fast-charging technology, Dolby audio and 128GB microSD support.

The smartphone has a back panel coating that allows it to heal scratches on the rear casing.</p>

<p> <i> 21.37 pm </i> Micromax Canvas Juice 2 With Android 5.0 Lollipop Launched at Rs. 8,999

Micromax Canvas Juice 2, the successor to the popular Canvas Juice smartphone, has been launched at Rs. 8,999. The smartphone will be available in Silver via online and offline stores from Thursday.

The new Canvas Juice 2 retains the 3000mAh battery from its predecessor, which is also the highlight of the device. The battery is rated to deliver up to 9 hours of talk time and up to 435 hours or 18 days of standby time. 

The dual-SIM based Canvas Juice 2 features a 5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) IPS display which is again an upgrade from the FWVGA resolution seen on the Canvas Juice. Another highlight of the smartphone is it runs Android 5.0 Lollipop.

The smartphone is powered by a quad-core processor (unspecified chipset) clocked at 1.3GHz coupled with 2GB of RAM and 8GB of inbuilt storage. To put that in perspective, the Canvas Juice was backed by a dual-core 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6572 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of inbuilt storage. The Micromax Canvas Juice 2 features expandable storage via microSD card (up to 32GB). The smartphone also features Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

The Canvas Juice 2 sports an 8-megapixel autofocus rear camera accompanied by an LED flash and also includes a 2-megapixel front-facing fixed focus camera. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/A-GPS, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, and Micro-USB. 

The Micromax Canvas Juice went on sale last year in March and was priced at Rs. 8,490.</p>

<i> <i> 21.35 pm </i> #RIP Internet Explorer: Microsoft makes way for new, renamed browser

The official announcement was made at a Microsoft Convergence conference in Atlanta, Georgia, where the head of marketing said that the new flagship browser for Windows, called Project Spartan, will not be associated with the Internet Explorer brand. While Internet Explorer will still exist on Windows 10 for compatibility purposes, it will take a back seat to the new browser.

The Verge reported Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela saying, "We’re now researching what the new brand, or the new name, for our browser should be in Windows 10."

Does this also mean we have to bid goodbye to the memes and jokes about Internet Explorer's speed? Because those were kind of funny.</p>

<p> <i> 21.34 pm </i> Xiaomi Pips Apple, Samsung to Become India's Top 4G Smartphone Vendor: CMR

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi surpassed global smartphone giants Samsung and Apple in terms of market share to become India's top 4G handset seller in January this year, CyberMedia Research said on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the market research firm had said that the iPhone maker emerged as the largest 4G LTE device vendor in the country in October-December 2014.

As per the latest CyberMedia Research (CMR) data, Xiaomi leads the 4G LTE device market with 30.8 percent market share in January followed by Apple (23.8 percent),Samsung (12.1 percent), HTC (10 percent) and Micromax (8.3 percent).

In October-December 2014 quarter, over 1 million 4G devices, including smartphones, tablets and data cards were shipped to the Indian market.

Apple led with a 45 percent market share at the end of October-December quarter in 2014, followed by HTC at 19 percent and Samsung at 16 percent, it had said.

Overall in handsets in January 2015, including feature phones, smartphones, 3G and 4G mobile phones, Samsung led the pack with 17.3 percent market share followed by Lava (11.9 percent), Microsoft (10.3 percent), Micromax (9.7 percent) and Intex (8.5 percent), CMR said.

Samsung was also the top smartphone vendor in India with 28.8 percent market share in January followed by Micromax (12.1 percent), Intex (9.7 percent), Lava (9.4 percent) and Microsoft (4.5 percent), it added.

Overall, feature phones accounted for 66.05 percent of the handsets shipped in January 2015, followed by smartphones at 33.95 percent, CMR said.</p>

<p> <i> 21.32 pm </i> Opera Coast 4.1 for iOS Adds Video Boost and More New Features

Opera Software on Tuesday brought its video boost feature and more to the updated Opera Coast 4.1 browser for iOS.

The updated Opera Coast browser is available on the App Store and is compatible with all devices (iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch) running iOS 7.0 and higher.

The video boost feature on Opera Coast browser is claimed to compress the overall video size to reduce the time taken to buffer the video. It works only when Opera Turbo is enabled.

"Using the Rocket Optimizer engine, Opera's video boost is the first time that video optimization has been integrated into a Web browser, so your browser can now become your favourite video app. Opera Coast has always been about reflecting how people truly surf on their mobile devices, and part of that is kicking back with trending, inspiring or downright hysterical videos," explained company in its press briefing.

Other than video boost, company says that Opera Coast now has more features to speed up browsing experience. The browser has added a page-loading status with the progress bar, an easier way to return to search from the Discover news feed (by swiping down), and support for sharing pages directly to Pinterest, Evernote, Pocket and Kik. Opera also claims that users can now navigate back to the previous page of a secure website without refreshing the page.

Last month, Opera mobile browser added a feature - Opera Max App Pass - that let operators offer subscribers free access to selected apps.

The new Opera Max App Pass feature will soon also allow advertisers to offer phone users sponsored or paid passes for using mobile apps. The feature is being tested byTelenor in some Asian markets, said company.</p>

<p> <i> 21.31 pm </i> Microsoft launches cloud programme for Indian enterprises

 Microsoft has announced the launch of Cloud Accelerator Programme for Indian enterprises and government. The new Cloud Accelerator programme will serve as a catalyst to accelerate the adoption of Microsoft Azure and Office 365 cloud services amongst enterprises and government organisations.

Announcing this at 2015 Microsoft Azure Conference in Pune, Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman, Microsoft India, said, “This will help organisations to not only plan local cloud roadmaps, but also increase compliance with local regulations.”

As announced during Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's visit to India last year, three Microsoft Azure data centres will be going live by end of calendar year 2015. The largest will be in Pune, though Pramanik refused to identify the other two locations or investments being on the data centre, only pointing to the global capex spend of $4.5 billion on 19 data centres. The new Cloud Accelerator Programme is also part of Microsoft's vision of being a productivity and platforms company in a cloud-first and mobile-first world.

Pramanik added that of India's IT pie of around $50 billion, cloud today accounted for around $400 million but with very fast growth rates. He claimed that many companies, were moving significant workloads to the cloud, giving the example of Fortis Hospitals which is shutting down its data centres and moving all core systems including hospital information systems, accounts and billing to the Microsoft Azure public cloud.

“We are investing to provide cloud services from local datacentres to help government, BFSI, state-owned enterprises and other regulated industries to take full advantage of the cloud.  The Cloud Accelerator Programme is designed to help India move to the cloud, and in turn, help ‘Make in India’ a reality. This will open up new possibilities in e-governance, financial inclusion, healthcare, and education to positively impact the lives of a billion people,” he added.

And recognising that open software loads play a key part in the cloud, Mark Hill, Microsoft's Global Vice President of Open Source Marketing & Sales said that Balaji Kesavaraj has been appointed open source lead for Microsoft India as part of Hill's team. According to Hill, 22 percent of volume on Azure processing already comes from Linux and Microsoft expects this to increase significantly.

More than 15 Microsoft partners including HCL, Wipro and Tech Mahindra will be part of the roll out of the Cloud Accelerator Programme in India. More partners will come on board with new offerings over the coming months.

In addition, Microsoft has launched cloud training programmes - Azure Vidyapeeth and GuruVarta, for partners that will enable SMBs transition to the cloud. The programme will train partners to help 10,000 SMBs across 250 cities to move to the cloud.

The company also announced the launch of a ‘Cloud Decision Framework’ for public sector companies, government departments, banks, and financial services companies. The independent, open framework builds on international ISO standards and incorporates India-specific guidelines from IRDA, IDRBT and the IT Act.

“Cloud is real in India today. With the Cloud Accelerator Program, we and our partners will be able to move thousands of customers to the cloud over the next few months,” added Karan Bajwa, managing director, Microsoft India.

Microsoft is witnessing rapid growth in cloud adoption in India and across the world.  In the quarter ending December 2014, Microsoft’s commercial cloud revenue grew 114 percent globally.  This was driven by Office 365, Microsoft Azure and Dynamics CRM Online.</p>

<p> <i> 21.29 pm </i> Xiaomi products not exclusive to Flipkart anymore
NEW DELHI: Chinese producer Xiaomi has lastly opened its on-line portal Mi Store in India, which means that its products are not exclusive to the e-commerce poster boy Flipkart anymore.

Xiaomi is simply promoting equipment on the internet retailer as of now, not smartphones. Therefore, you’ll be able to solely buy earphones and instances & covers for Xiaomi smartphones from the e-retailer at current. However, the corporate has not dominated out promoting smartphones on the web site in coming months.

Nevertheless, Flipkart continues to be the exclusive gross sales companion for Xiaomi smartphones in India.

Xiaomi has bought over one million smartphones in India because it arrived within the nation final July. However, products like Yi motion digital camera and Mi Band health tracker are but to hit the market, together with new smartphones Mi Note and Mi Note Pro.

At a press meet final week, Xiaomi international vice chairman Hugo Barra and India head Manu Jain stated that the corporate will open one hundred Experience Zones in its service centres beginning subsequent month, the place the corporate’s products can be obtainable for a arms-on expertise, however not buy Times of India.</p>