Huawei launches Honor 6 smartphone at Rs 19,999

The smartphone is priced at Rs.19,999 while the tablet will cost Rs.9,999. The devices will be exclusively available on e-commerce portal Flipkart. The phone will be available from Oct 6.

"India is a strategic market for Huawei and a big focus for Huawei Consumer Business Group. The company has performed extremely well in the market in the last two years demonstrating a firm commitment for India," Cai Liqun, chief executive officer, Huawei Telecommunications India, said during the launch.

The phone sports a 5-inch display and has 3 GB RAM, with 13 mega pixel rear camera and 5 mega pixel front camera. The phone that runs on 4.4 KitKat has a 3,100 mAH battery.

The tablet has 8 inches display with 1.2 GHz quad core processor and 1 GB RAM. It also has 5 mega pixel rear camera with a 4,800 mAH battery.

"The overwhelming response from our customers and strong business relationships have further inspired us to grow bigger and faster in India. Our product line up for the next quarter is exciting and promising and we are confident that our tie-up with Flipkart will further fuel our growth and success in India," Cai added.

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All-in-one: Strap a multi-function smartphone to your arm

This Android-based, flexible, shatter-proof, water-resistant and wearable smartphone features a flexible 6-inch TFT display that wraps around your lower arm.

"The Portal is a smartphone designed for tech enthusiasts, active individuals and on-the-go professionals who are frustrated with bulky, cluttered, non-durable phones that constantly get in the way of their dynamic lifestyles," noted the Portal manifesto at the crowdfunding site Indiegogo.

The US-based Portal developers are currently looking for $300,000 (Rs.1.8 crore) in funding on Indiegogo.

"Portal can be comfortably worn on either forearm and features no ports or cord connectivity, freeing your hands and pockets to keep your life active, connected and hassle-free," the Portal team said.
 
The device will feature 2GB of RAM, 64GB of storage space and a customised version of Android, the developers said. 

Cough up $349 (Rs.21,425) or more and you can have a Portal of your own when they appear next year, Digital Trends website reported.

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An app that lets you choose notifications on smartphone

Called Ping and available on iOS devices, it will send notifications to your phone's lock screen based on whatever categories you choose.

After downloading the app, it brings you to a screen with several categories listed on it, including practical ones like "Apps worth downloading" and "Trending on Twitter", media reports said.

Ping does not ask for usernames, passwords or permission to access your contacts.

"It draws information from somewhere to send you the notifications based on the categories you requested," its designer Ben Lee wrote on a blog post.

There are a total of nine categories of notifications to choose from, said Secret's CEO, David Byttow, adding that Ping "adapts to you, and evolves itself" as people use it, the reports added.

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Google inks MoU with Andhra Pradesh for state's IT vision

Under the pact, Google India would work with the AP government to get women as well as small and medium business online.

The MoU was signed by Google India Vice-President and Managing Director Rajan Anandan and AP secretary Sanjay Jaju in the presence of AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.

Addressing a gathering later, Rajananandan said that Google India would collaborate with the AP government to achieve its vision to make it a model digital state. He said self help groups would be put online with Telugu content.

"We are delighted to collaborate with AP government to achieve its vision to be a model digital state. Creating awareness about the benefits of the internet and its adoption among women, small medium businesses and children can deliver a huge economic impact for the state," he said.

Improved accessibility to AP government websites and scaling up local language web could open up whole new opportunities for local entrepreneurs and make the Internet more meaningful to non-English speaking users, he said.

AP Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that his state wishes to be the first one to embrace the Prime Minister's vision of a 'Digital India'.

"We are happy to announce a number of initiatives along with Google, that will serve as the foundation in achieving the Digital AP vision. I will personally be involved in ensuring the roll out of these initiatives and monitor the impact.

Highlights of the MoU include helping AP government make its websites mobile-ready and accessible in the local language, promoting internet safety among children and government officials, get more local languages content online, collaborate with AP government to scale up initiatives to promote digital literacy amongst women, as well as help small medium businesses in the state gain from the internet.

Source: News in Hindi and Newspaper

BlackBerry launches Passport at Rs 49,990 in India

The one-time smartphone industry pioneer recently concluded a three-year long restructuring process and has largely halted the bleed, but it is now up to Chief Executive John Chen to prove that the company's new devices and services are capable of generating sustainable new streams of revenue and returning it to profitability.

It is worth mentioning that BlackBerry has increasingly lost relevance as a smartphone company in the years since the 2007 launch of Apple's touchscreen iPhone and the 2008 introduction of Google-powered Android phones.

"BlackBerry is still fighting for survival. They still need to turn around and develop a viable ongoing business model," said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello.

"Their products are certainly pointing toward that and the new strategy makes sense, but there is still a lot of execution risk at this point in a very competitive market."

The company is hoping the Classic and the launch of its new mobile device management system - BlackBerry Enterprise Service 12 (BES12) will help it claw back ground ceded to rivals in both the hardware and services market.

The BES 12 platform will allow IT managers at large firms and government agencies to not only manage and secure BlackBerry devices, but also all Android, iOS and Windows-based devices on one platform.

BlackBerry is betting that the enhanced security features on its BES 12 platform, coupled with a range of value-added services, will help revive revenue growth and stem its slide.

"BES12 is the most important product launch, as it is needed to stem the service revenue decline," Scotiabank analyst Daniel Chan said in a note to clients on Tuesday.

Passport sports a 4.5-inch square and touch-enabled display and three-row QWERTY keypad. The BlackBerry Passport flaunts a 4.5-inch square display with 1:1 aspect ratio, a resolution of 1440×1440 pixels and a density of 453ppi. The display is also protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

The smartphone is powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor coupled with Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB of RAM. Also featured are 32GB internal storage, microSD card support, 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization, 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 3,450mAh battery, which the company claims is good enough to last up to 30 hours on a single charge.

Connectivity options include LTE support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. On the software front, the Passport runs on BB10.3 operating system.

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Raman Singh for improving of teaching skills in govt schools

"The Chief Minister emphasized to improve education of children and also teaching skills in schools, particularly in primary and middle level, during

the review meeting of the School Education and Tribal Development departments at Mantralaya," an official release said.

"Around 45,000 teachers should be imparted training within two years," Singh is quoted as saying in the release.

Notably, 2014 is being observed as Education Quality Improvement Year in Chhattisgarh.

In the meeting, the Chief Minister directed senior officials to conduct unit tests in schools every month on regular basis, the release said.

He also asked that engineering graduates be hired for teaching maths and science subjects as there is a shortage of teachers in these streams in government schools, it said.

Besides, the Chief Minister asked to establish five divisional offices of the school education department for effective control and monitoring academic activities of schools across the state.

According to the release, special gram sabhas will be held on 2nd October to mark the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, in every village of the state.

"Under the Education Quality Improvement Year, for the first time, quality education-centred special gram sabhas will be held on 2nd October wherein school teachers and villagers will have a discussion on measures to improve the education standards,”  the release said.

"Similarly, under 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan' (Clean Indian Mission), they will also discuss how to keep their village clean and improve the sanitation during gram sabhas," it added.

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Panneerselvam arrives in Banglore, expected to meet Jaya on Tuesday

"Pannerselvam today arrived in Bangalore along with some senior cabinet colleagues and is expected to meet Jayalalithaa tomorrow in the jail," AIADMK sources said.

Senior AIADMK leaders and cabinet ministers, including Natham R Viswanathan, R Vaithilingam, Edapadi Palanisamy, C Vijayabaskar, K C Veeramani and B V Ramana accompanied Panneerselvam in a chartered flight from Chennai.

Panneerselvam was sworn-in as the Chief Minister to head the 31-member council of ministers by Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah in a low-key function at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai on Monday afternoon.

A special court had on 27th September convicted Jayalalithaa in the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate assets case and sentenced to four years in jail besides a fine of Rs 100 crore, resulting in her automatic disqualification as MLA.
  
Jayalalithaa and three others convicted in the case are now lodged in Parappana Agrahara prison on the outskirts of the city.
  
Earlier in the day, Jayalalithaa had moved Karnataka High Court challenging her conviction by the special court, maintaining that all charges of amassing wealth against her were false and she had acquired property through legal means and pleaded for bail.

Source: News in Hindi and Newspaper