Google Buys Softcard's Technology, Gets Deal With U.S. Carriers

Google Inc. has acquired technology and patents from Softcard, a mobile-wallet service sponsored by the three-greatest U.S. remote suppliers, as the Web organization tackles Apple Inc. to offer more payment peculiarities on smartphones.

Softcard is a joint wander between AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to support NFC based mobile payments in the United States. While Google's unique post on the Google Commerce web journal depicted it as something closer to a partnership, the announcement discharged via Softcard affirms that Google has acquired Softcard's technology.

The deal will see Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and AT&T pre-install Google Wallet on their Android phones in the U.S. not long from now. Google Wallet permits shoppers to tap their phones to pay at checkout in some block and-mortar stores similarly Apple Pay does. The move likewise includes Google purchasing some protected innovation from Softcard, once known as ISIS. It doesn't give the idea that any Softcard representatives are joining Google as a major aspect of the deal.

Google, which presented its digital wallet in 2011, is searching for better approaches to pull in clients as Apple's mobile-payments service makes strides with purchasers and retailers. Apple Pay as of now records for more than $2 out of $3 of buys utilizing contactless mobile-telephone payments over the three noteworthy Visa systems, Apple said a month ago.

"We've gotten awesome criticism from individuals who utilize this peculiarity and we've kept contributing to make it simple and secure for more individuals to pay with their phones," Google said. "An enormous piece of this is working with different trend-setters in the business to help give a consistent experience over an extensive variety of phones and stores."

While Apple Pay has made strides, EBay Inc's. PayPal payments service remains a top supplier for mobile and Internet payments. In November, Apple Pay represented 1 percent of digital-payment dollars spent, by Investment Research. PayPal, which has been around for a long time and is being spun off by EBay, had 78 percent, while Google Wallet had 4 percent.

The partnership takes after Samsung Electronics Co's. declaration not long from now of a deal to purchase LoopPay Inc. to pick up a bigger foothold in mobile payments. LoopPay makes cell phone frill that let 90 percent of Visa payment gadgets accept mobile payments, Samsung said.

LoopPay makes cell phone adornments that let 90 percent of Mastercard payment gadgets accept mobile payments, Samsung said.

Google launches YouTube Kids on Android and iOS

It's been rumored for some time, yet now its official: Google has launched YouTube Kids.

The organization says its been working with parents over the previous year to make an all the more family-friendly version of YouTube . The new application is intended to be easier for kids offering a brighter and greater interface.

As you may expect, the choice of features on the platform is restricted for what Google considers "appropriate for the entire family." Parents and kids can skim four channel and playlist classifications: Shows, Music, Learning and Explore.

Obviously, you can basically look for substance you're searching for too, and it backings voice seek, on the off chance that your kid can't spell or type. Some illustration substance incorporates DIY arts and specialties, math lessons and youngsters' shows. Furthermore clearly, a great deal of train features.

The application additionally offers various parental controls, including:

• A timer that gives you a chance to breaking point your kids' screen time
• Sound settings to turn off ambient sounds and sound impacts to keep things quieter
• The capacity to turn off hunt to confine features to only those on the home screen
• A committed feedback segment to permit parents to give conclusions on the application and its substance

The application was initially rumored to be Android-just at launch, however it will likewise be landing on iOS today, also kids' tablets Kurio and nabi later on. You can head on over to the Google Play Store or the iOS App Store to try the new applications out.

No statement on a desktop version yet we've reached Google and will redesign in the event that we hear more. 

Source: Youtube Official Blog

Online education: the next big thing in India

The education sector in India is no more bound to simply classrooms. On account of new start-ups and higher internet and smartphone penetration, the online learning space in India is growing multifolds.

The e-learning market in India is assessed to be around $3 billion. The central government's efforts to make digital learning accessible to understudies in every corner of the nation is additionally supporting the sector.

At present, online preparing in India concentrates just as on both school and college-based courses and additionally mid-level professional courses.

For instance, Bengaluru-based Entranceindia gives practice papers to all building and therapeutic passageway tests in India. The organization intends to help understudies concentrate on the right subjects and substance as opposed to swim aimlessly in a sea of study materials accessible crosswise over diverse media. Likewise, they concentrate on comfort based preparing in light of the fact that online ability empowers understudies to get access to subjects at whatever time and anyplace.

As indicated by industry specialists, the fate of education in India will rely on upon online courses.

"A real set again of Indian education framework is the deferral to upgrade syllabus. Subsequently, in future, instead of acquiring a three-year degree course from a tier-1 or tier-2 city in India, there will be more takers for a professional course that is overhauled with the current industry demands," said Krishna Kumar, founder of an online preparing start-up Simplilearn.

Bengaluru-based Simplilearn offers more than 200 affirmation courses in project management, data innovation administration management, Microsoft accreditation, quality management and monetary management.

The organization has more than 300 courses over 150 nations, with more than 600 workers and has prepared more than 200,000 professionals over the globe.

Another company which is leading the way for online education in India is EduKart. EduKart was started in 2011 by Ishan Gupta, alumnus of Stanford University (USA) along with a passionate team of founders.

“This is a very crucial juncture for online education. While the development of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Content) has completely revolutionised the accessibility of education, the sector is looking forward to more engaging and interactive platforms for students to learn. Another challenge is to provide the aspirants with a range of choices so that they can make an informed career decision,” said Ishan Gupta, CEO EduKart.

The company is trying to bridge this gap by providing a range of choices to the aspirants, both in terms of the courses and course providers. As a marketplace, the company offers more than 1000 degree, diploma and certificate courses from 30+ national and international course providers.

The Learning Management System of EduKart, known as EKampus, provides the students with a great platform to learn and develop various skills.

Intellipaat, started in 2011, gives online preparing to IT professionals including corporate preparing, and paced toward oneself courses and offers more than 80 innovative courses crosswise over distinctive spaces. As indicated by CEO Diwakar Chittora, the organization is seeing just about a 1,000% augmentation as far as growth. The organization panders to corporates like Genpact, Ericsson,Sony, CISCO, TCS, Wipro, and Tata Communications among others.

Hyderabad-based Learnsocial is a six-month old organization and deals with an aggregator model. It intends to coddle both mid-level professionals and understudies alike.

"We need to turn into the Amazon of online learning. We need to give a large number of posts on learnsocial.com, totaling substance from different specialists, substance houses or colleges," says founder Raju Vanapala. Learnsocial has near to 200,000 clients and has prepared more than 1,100 learners. 

As indicated by studies, India and China will lead the growth in project management roles, creating around 4 million and 8.1 million roles, separately, by 2020. Subsequently, the business looks to grow from here on out.

An alternate reason why online preparing will pick up energy is a direct result of the requirement for re-skilling, For instance, around a decade back, all that a software professional was obliged to know were programming languages. Presently these professionals need to upgrade themselves on different viewpoints like big data analytics and cloud processing. Better pay treks and advancements are likewise the reasons why individuals embrace new courses.

A great deal of start-ups are now setting their foot in what they think will be the following big thing in India after e-trade. While a few organizations like Simplilearn and Intellipaat look to produce content, particularly going for mid-level professionals, others like Learnsocial plays a greater amount of an aggregator part. These organizations additionally offer mixed classes, coordinating both online and disconnected from the net experience, alongside take toward oneself courses.

In spite of the fact that a dominant part of their clients are from India, these entryways have seen countless from abroad too.

BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 update begins rolling out to users

BlackBerry revealed a significant software update on Thursday, permitting users of its whole suite of BlackBerry 10 devices, for example, the Z10, Q10 and Z30 to get to Android applications, and a host of different features, including Blend.

The organization said the BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1 gives users the capacity to get to both the BlackBerry World appstore and the Amazon Appstore that gives access to a host of Android applications already occupied on the BlackBerry stage.

Furthermore, BlackBerry said the new software will permit its users to get to its new BlackBerry Blend offer that awed numerous, when it was divulged last year.

The Blend gimmick lets users get message notifications, read and react to work and individual email, text and different messages, while likewise getting to records, logbooks, contacts and other media, on whatever gadget one is utilizing. It meets expectations over a host of working frameworks including Apple's Mac OS, Microsoft's Windows stage and tablets fueled by Google Inc's Android software.

The software update will likewise present the new BlackBerry Assistant, an advanced assistant that can be utilized with voice or text order to help users oversee email, contacts, datebook and different applications. It matches offerings, for example, Apple's Siri and Samsung's S Voice.

BlackBerry said subject to carrier acceptance, the software overhaul will start to take off to clients around the world, beginning Thursday.


Source: Reuters

Millions of computers may be compromised by US spyware - Kaspersky report

The US National Security Agency (NSA) has figured out how to conceal spying software profound inside hard drives made by top PC manufacturers, permitting the agency to spy on most of the world's computers, as per cyber researchers and previous operatives.

The nearly protected system was found by Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow-based security software creator that has uncovered a progression of Western cyber-secret activities operations.

Kaspersky said it discovered PCs in 30 nations contaminated with spying projects, with the most infections seen in Iran, emulated by Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Mali, Syria, Yemen and Algeria.

The targets included government and military establishments, telecom organizations, banks, vitality organizations, atomic researchers, media, and Islamic activists, Kaspersky said.

The firm declined to publicly blame the US for being behind the spying crusade, however said it was nearly connected to Stuxnet, the NSA-drove cyberweapon that was utilized to attack Iran's uranium enhancement office.

A previous NSA representative told Reuters that Kaspersky's investigation was right, and that individuals still in the spy agency esteemed these surveillance programs as exceedingly as Stuxnet.

An alternate previous intelligence agent confirmed that the NSA had added to the prized method of disguising spyware in hard drives, however said he didn't know which spy efforts depended on it.

NSA representative Vanee Vines said the agency was mindful of the Kaspersky report however would not remark on it publicly.

Kaspersky on Monday distributed the specialized subtle elements of its exploration on Monday, a move that could help contaminated foundations catch the spying projects, some of which follow back the extent that 2001.

The revelation could hurt the NSA's reconnaissance capacities, officially harmed by enormous holes by previous foreman Edward Snowden. Mr Snowden's disclosures have vexed a few US partners and impede the offers of U.S. innovation items abroad.

The presentation of these new spying instruments could prompt more prominent backfire against Western innovation, especially in nations, for example, China, which is as of now drafting regulations that would oblige most bank innovation suppliers to proffer duplicates of their software code for assessment.

Peter Swire, one of five individuals from President Barack Obama's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology, said the Kaspersky report demonstrated that it is crucial for the nation to consider the conceivable impact on exchange and conciliatory relations before choosing to utilize its learning of software flaws for intelligence gathering.

"There can be not kidding negative consequences for different US engages," Mr Swire said.

As per Kaspersky, the spies made a mechanical leap forward by making sense of how to cabin malicious software in the dark code called firmware that dispatches each time a PC is turned on.

Apple Records Highest Ever Market Share in Japan and S.Korea

Apple's iPhone is having some fantastic luck in various vital Asian markets, as per another report from Counterpoint Research (cap tip to the Wall Street Journal for detecting this).

The iPhone hit a record high sales market share in South Korea, representing 33 percent of month to month sales in the country in November. The stronger shipments of the iPhone in South Korea appear to have agreed with a huge slip for Samsung:

iPhone hits record sales market share in South Korea, grows to 51% in Japan

Tom Kang, Counterpoint's research executive in South Korea, says that Apple has figured out how to pass a notable development. "No foreign brand has gone past the 20 percent market share stamp in the history of Korea's smartphone industry. It has dependably been ruled by the worldwide smartphone player, Samsung. Anyhow iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have had any kind of effect here, marking the opposition's phablet sales. Korea being the world's most astounding entered phablet market (handsets with 5" above screens) truly required a huge screen iPhone for very much a period and now this thirst has been extinguished."

Kang clarifies that if Apple's supplies weren't so compelled directly after the iPhone 6 dispatch in September, its numbers might've been ever stronger in South Korea – it "could have moved to the 40 percent level," he includes.

Japan Boost

In Japan, the same report saw the iPhone sale increased to 51 percent market share in November. That was the most elevated figure all year, demonstrating that the colossal swarms queueing for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in September interpreted into a sales bonanza.

Rival brands like Sharp and Fujitsu confronted slow decreases for the vast majority of 2014.

The 51 percent figure isn't a record high for the iPhone in Japan. That was likely attained to promptly after Docomo began to offer iPhones, following quite a while of reckoning. The repressed interest saw the iPhone hit 69 percent share of sales towards the end of 2013, as indicated by information refered to by Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer.

NOTE: The information originates from Counterpoint Research's Monthly Market Pulse report. It checks month to month sales figures. It doesn't reflect market share of dynamic telephone clients. 

Source: WSJ , Counterpoint Research

Housing.com plans to Acquires Real Estate Data Product PropEquity

Online real home portal, Housing.com is in converses with obtain Delhi-based real domain data product PropEquity for an arrangement measure of Rs 80 crore.

According to a TechCircle (VCCircle) report, Housing.com offered around Rs 80 crore for the company which recorded revenues of Rs 13.7 crore in 2014 and misfortunes of Rs 70 lakh.

PropEquity was begun by founder and CEO Samir Jasuja, it is an online subscription based real home data and investigation stage covering more than 45,000 tasks of 8,200 designers crosswise over more than 40 cities in India. The firm includes pretty nearly 500 undertakings consistently. As of now, the company has more than 250 representatives.

Housing was propelled in 2012 by twelve of IITians including Advitiya Sharma. As of late, it had made a tie up with Tata Value Homes to offer homes online utilizing its website, further it dispatched another gimmick 'Slice View' to give home purchasers an intelligent investigation of a venture before making a booking.

Till date, Housing.com has secured an aggregate subsidizing of over USD 121 million in 5 rounds of financing. In December 2014, the Japanese venture company SoftBank had affirmed driving a USD 90 million round, with investment from Falcon Edge Capital in Housing.com. As of now, it gives seeks in 45 cities with a vicinity in western and southern India.