Google’s Play Books store now available for India users!!

Google’s Play Books store now available for India users!!

Google’s Play Books store now available for India users!!

For e-book lovers in India, the options are growing. After Amazon’s Kindle eBook store was made available to Indian users last year, Google’s Play Books Store is now also available in India. You can download the Play Book app from the Google Play Store by clicking here. The app lets users buy and read e-books on their smart devices and computers.

Today we’re adding books to Google Play for people in India. Books on Google Play now offers thousands of Indian titles, from new releases to classics. It’s easy to find great Indian authors such as Amish Tripathi, Devdutt Pattanaik and APJ Abdul Kalam, plus international bestsellers from the world’s largest ebookstore.

The app is also available on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch. You can download the iOS version of the app here.

With Google Books, the books will be stored in the cloud and users can also read them on their web browser. Like in iBooks, the Google Play Books store does come with its fair share of its free classics such as Great Expectations, Alice in Wonderland etc.

Some of the titles that we’ve spotted are Fifty Shades of Grey, The Oath of the Vayuputras by Amish Tripathi, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, Dan Brown books. The Hobbit and LOTR are also available.

Google recently updated the Play Books app and fixed over 90 bugs with the app. These were issues related to the app crashing, User Interface improvements, the additions of a drop-down menu in the library to allow filtering books by type, and identifying place names on the current page when the reading controls are showing.

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Fingerprint ATMs Are More Secure Now

Fingerprint ATMs Are More Secure Now

Ah, the almighty ATM machine is a firm favorite of mine, as it will hold your surplus of cash, and can be “summoned”, as it were, as and when required. It used to be an ATM card with a magnetic stripe at the back that held your personal information, but technology has since seen the ATM machine and mode of withdrawal seen several positive steps made in the name of security, including a more secure chip embedded now in favor of the magnetic strip. Still, there are always better ways to be safe, and one of the more innovative methods was the introduction of a fingerprint reader at ATMs, where it will rely on “finger vein” technology that will record the veins on your fingertips instead of reading the topographic signature of your finger.

This scanning technology is the brainchild of Japanese company Hitachi, and each customer will have his or her very own unique identifier. There is only one of these biometric machines in the world so far being used in public as far as we know, and it operates in Poland, although there are plans in the pipeline to introduce another three or four of such well equipped ATMs in Warsaw before the year is over.

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SPs Adopt Alert System To Warn Users of Illegal Downloads

SPs Adopt Alert System To Warn Users of Illegal Downloads

If you’re a person who downloads torrents on a regular basis, you might want to watch what you do from today on as Internet service providers will begin cracking down on users who download copyrighted material.

The Copyright Alert System (CAS) will be used by AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon and will allow for content creators to send notices to ISPs that include a list of people who they believe have downloaded copyrighted material through “peer-to-peer” services.

The violators will receive up to six notices, each “with an increasing degree of seriousness.” The first two notices will be “educational alerts” meant to inform the subscriber illegal content is being downloaded under their account. The next two are “acknowledgment” notices that will require a response from the recipient, and the last two will be “mitigation” alerts, that will try to impose consequences to help emphasize the seriousness of the situation.

After the sixth warning, ISPs may take it upon themselves to throttle the users’ Internet speeds or deny them Internet access until they acknowledge the alerts sent by way of a dedicated landing page

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Ferrari World’s most Powerful Brand

Ferrari World’s most Powerful Brand

A case in point is Ferrari, owned by Italian car giant Fiat, that achieved the highest brand rating in the Global 500 despite being a niche sports car manufacturer with a much smaller enterprise value than many of the other global brands in the Top 500.

“I often think that the Italian genius for car design is based in the language of craft,” comments world renowned design critic Stephen Bayley. “Theirs is a workshop vocabulary with words for a car’s features and contours many of which simply don’t exist in English. If you have a word for it you can draw it. That word is beauty,” he says.

A key driver of brand value is revenue. Clearly Ferrari cannot compete in terms of the size of the multi-national brands. However its brand rating takes into account other financial metrics such as net margins, average revenue per customer, marketing and advertising spend as well as qualitative measures such as brand affection and loyalty.

Taken together, Ferrari outperforms not only rival auto manufacturers BMW, VW, Mercedes Benz, Lexus and Audi but all brands worldwide.

Ferrari today announced record results for the first nine months of 2012, recording an increase in net profits by 7.6 per cent to €244m on a turnover of €2.43 billion.

“It is always a pleasure to top any list and still more so when the competition includes some of the world’s most famous companies. This achievement proves that even in very tough economic times, Italy can still offer the world businesses of excellence,” commented Ferrari Chairman Luca di Montezemolo. “Behind this acknowledgement are exceptional products made by equally exceptional men and women. They made it possible and for that I thank them.”

David Haigh concludes: “As the Global 500 powerfully demonstrates, customer expectations of brands are much higher than ever as trust becomes a critical business issue in a time of increased economic uncertainty. To fulfil such expectations, brand owners must continue to innovate whilst at the same time deliver quality with value, choice with social responsibility and sustainability with growth.

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ASUS Padfone 2 launching in the UK on March 1

ASUS Padfone 2 launching in the UK on March 1

Way back in October last year we first heard word that ASUS planned to bring the Padfone 2 to the UK in early 2013. It's now early 2013 and true to their word ASUS is indeed bringing the Padfone 2 to the UK on March 1 for £599.

For some it may seem an anti-climax given the recent unveiling of the Padfone Infinity at MWC. But, the Padfone 2 is still an impressive device packing a Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB of RAM, a 13MP camera and a HD Super IPS+ display. It isn't quite the powerhouse the new Padfone Infinity is, but the hardware specs are still impressive. And of course, the Padfone 2 will be around £200 cheaper than the Infinity. 

Both white and black versions will be available, and several big name retailers will be picking it up including Amazon and Carphone Warehouse. The full press release can be found after the break.

ASUS PadFone™ 2 launches in the UK

Quad-core Android smartphone with incredible battery life and a thinner, lighter

PadFone 2 Station deliver the ultimate in mobile flexibility

Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain (25th February, 2013) — ASUS, a global leader in the new digital era, today announces the UK launch of the PadFone™ 2. Building upon the successful PadFone combination of an Android smartphone and dockable tablet for incredible mobile flexibility, PadFone 2 consists of a higher-specification quad-core smartphone and a completely redesigned tablet.

PadFone 2 is a fully featured 4.7” Android™ smartphone with industry-leading specifications that docks with the unique PadFone 2 Station to become a lightweight, but fully featured, 10.1” tablet. Apps are seamlessly optimised on-the-fly to support both tablet and phone modes, with an instant transition between the two different screen sizes.

Enlarge and charge

ASUS’ world-renowned Design Thinking philosophy has significantly reduced PadFone 2 Station’s thickness and weight. At just 649g, the combined weight of both PadFone 2 and PadFone 2 Station is now lighter than most tablets on the market, and the dock mechanism has been redesigned to require just one swift step to use. PadFone 2 has also been subtly refined to increase its screen size to 4.7”, while reducing its thickness and weight to just 9mm

at its thickest point and 135g, respectively.

Battery life is astounding, too. The higher-capacity PadFone 2 2140mAh battery provides up to 16 hours 3G talk-time and 13 hours Wi-Fi web browsing, while PadFone 2 Station’s 5000mAh battery gives up to 36 hours 3G talk-time. PadFone 2 Station’s internal battery also has enough capacity to recharge the docked PadFone 2 three times over.

A 1.5GHz Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S4 Proquad-core processor with 2GB of RAM ensures incredible PadFone 2 performance in both smartphone and tablet modes. The new 4.7” 1280 x 720 HD Super IPS+ display uses scratch-resistant Corning® Glass and delivers sharp, detailed images with accurate colors, ultra-wide viewing angles and 550 nits brightness for stunning outdoor visibility. A new 13-megapixel high-performance camera captures incredibly detailed images with no shutter lag. Burst mode can capture up to 100 shots at a blisteringly quick six shots per second, while simultaneously recording 1080p HD video at 30fps, or 720p HD video at 60fps. Low-light performance is also enhanced by the wide f/2.4 aperture and a dedicated image signal processor. Both PadFone 2 and PadFone 2 Station feature superlative sound quality too, thanks to ASUS SonicMaster technology and audio tuning by Waves, recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award®.

Easy to share, easy to save

With capacities up to 64GB and 50GB of ASUS WebStorage provided free for two years, PadFone 2 offers endless possibilities for storing data. Data syncing between devices is also a thing of the past, since PadFone 2 storage is shared withPadFone 2 Station when the two are connected. Shared mobile data connectivity between smartphone and tablet also means just one data plan is needed for both devices, while support for up to 42Mbit/s DC-HSPA+ and 100Mbit/s LTE delivers super-fast web browsing and downloads.

User-friendly enhancements

PadFone 2 also features a new version of the SuperNote app and messaging app that instantly convert blocks of handwritten notes made in multiple languages into editable text. Its Instant Translation tool also translates any word, phrase or sentence in an email, web page or app at a touch, without the need for a third-party translation tool.

Availability & Pricing

The ASUS PadFone 2 bundled with the PadStation will be priced £599 inc VAT (SRP) and is available in two colours, black and white. Customers are able to pre-order online from Friday 1st March at Carphone Warehouse, John Lewis, Selfridges, Amazon.co.uk, Ebuyer.com, Scan.co.uk, Box.co.uk and laptopoutlet.co.uk

The PadFone 2 will also be available in-store late March from a range of retailers including Carphone Warehouse (selected stores), John Lewis (Oxford Street), Selfridges (London, Manchester and Bentalls Kingston), Scan Computers (Bolton) and Box.co.uk (Birmingham).

Please check with individual retailers for further information.

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Facebook campus gets the Guggenheim Museum treatment

Facebook campus gets the Guggenheim Museum treatment

Facebook unveiled its sprawling, rooftop-gardened campus expansion -- the brainchild of renowned architect Frank Gehry.

Gehry, the man behind the famous Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the more recent, Bilbao-like Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, has presented Facebook with a tree-covered campus that boasts eco-friendly construction and an underground tunnel to the current campus.

Everett Katigbak, Facebook's environmental design manager, called the site "a paradise work space for the 3,400 engineers who will one day fill it."

"At every step of planning the new building, Frank has taken into account our engineering culture," Katigbak wrote in a Facebook note posted today. "It will be a large, one room building that somewhat resembles a warehouse. Just like we do now, everyone will sit out in the open with desks that can be quickly shuffled around as teams form and break apart around projects. There will be cafes and lots of microkitchens with snacks so that you never have to go hungry. And we'll fill the building with breakaway spaces with couches and whiteboards to make getting away from your desk easy. "a

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