Apple to launch streaming TV service

SAN FRANCISCO: , technology news website Re/code reported on Wednesday.

The California-based maker of iPhones, iPads, iPods, Macintosh computers and Apple TV boxes is exploring the potential for deals that would let it sell bundles of programming directly to viewers.

Apple could model a service after recent moves by Dish and Sony to work with programmers to deliver live TV shows along with the kind of on-demand video just cable companies sell.

Apple has made several attempts at finding a key to the television market, including marketing an Apple TV box for routing content from the internet to home screens.

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Hacker copies fingerprint from a photograph Independent

Geek uses commercially available picture of a German minister to clone her biological data.

New techniques could allow hackers to copy fingerprints using only a photograph. Fingerprint technology is hoped to be one of a range of new forms of biometric security, but the discovery by a member of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) shows even personal biological data might not be safe from hackers.

Jan Krissler, who is also known as Starbug, said that he had used commercially available photographs of German defence minister Usula von der Leyen.

While hackers have previously been able to copy fingerprints from any object with a polished surface, like a plate of glass or a smartphone, that had been touched, the discovery seems to mark the first time that such a hack has been done without even needing to steal objects carrying the data.

He demonstrated the technology at a convention for members of the CCC, a 31-year-old network that claims to be Europe's largest association of hackers.

Krissler took the photos from a press conference in Germany in October. He said that he presumed that politicians would wear gloves to stop use of similar technology by malicious hackers.

Fingerprint technology is already used to secure Apple and Samsung phones. It avoids the need for a password in most cases — making logging in much quicker and easier, but also giving anyone with the correct fingerprint the ability to access personal data and make purchases. The technology was even used to identify voters in Brazil's most recent elections. Similar technology that recognizes finger veins has been introduced by Barclays for business customers and at cash machines in Japan and Poland.

Global electronics company Hitachi, too, manufactures a device that reads the unique pattern of veins inside a finger and works only if the finger is attached to a living person.

In 2013, trials at Southampton General Hospital's intensive care unit indicated that vein patterns are not affected by fluctuations in blood pressure.

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168 Foxconn workers arrested for trying to enter Chennai plant

More than 150 employees at Hon Hai Precision Industry Co's Chennai factory were arrested on Monday as they attempted to force entry to the mobile phone plant earmarked for closure at the end of the month.

Hon Hai, which trades as Foxconn, announced on December 11 that it would close the factory, coming close on the heels of a similar move by Nokia and delivering a second blow for the government as it seeks to beef up the country's manufacturing sector.

Hon Hai is the world's largest contract manufacturer of electronic goods and counted Nokia as a major client in India. Its plant in southern India employed about 1,700 workers.

About 168 workers were arrested, including 16 women, when they tried to enter the factory, said E Muthukumar, president of Foxconn India Employees Union.

A Hon Hai spokesman declined to comment.

Vijaya Kumar, superintendent of police at Kancheepuram district, said the arrests were a preventative measure and that the workers were likely to be released soon.

The employees had been trying to gain entry in protest at the lack of any formal notice of closure, the employee union's president said.

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It’s app-ening: Tech will transform aam aadmi

           The multi-billion-dollar valuations of Flipkart and Snapdeal are no pricing bubble, but a signal that India's technology boom has begun. The next five years will see a flurry of technology innovations that will transform the country as much as cellphones have over the past 15 years. This will be enabled by the availability of low-cost smartphones, the digital identity that Aadhaar has provided to hundreds of millions of people who lacked any documentation, and a host of exponential technology advances. A billion Indians will be joining the global economy during this decade.

There is a lot for Indian entrepreneurs to learn from Silicon Valley. But the bigger opportunities are for them to leapfrog it by solving the problems of the many rather than of the few. The same infrastructure lacuna that enabled India to create Aadhaar—lack of all technological legacy to have to worry about—offers it an opportunity to implement changes inarguably for the public good and to show the world how to create an entirely new digital infrastructure in areas such as the following.

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Microsoft wants to pilot White-Fi tech in India

NEW DELHI: Satya Nadella, global CEO of Microsoft, urged telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to allow the US software major to pilot its 'White-Fi' technology to provide internet connectivity in remote villages in the country at a meeting in the capital on Friday.

Microsoft's White-Fi, or television White-Space technology, works like Wi-Fi on a bigger scale to provide wireless connectivity across a 10km radius at a speed of up to 16mbps, by using chunks of airwaves lying between spectrum kept untouched by broadcasters to avoid interference or disturbance between transmissions.

Nadella, who is in the country on Christmas holidays, also discussed with Prasad other ways in which Microsoft could partner in the government's Digital India initiative. He was accompanied by the firm's India head Bhaskar Pramanik.

"We have asked Microsoft to put forth concrete ways in helping achieve various social objectives under Digital India such as raising digital literacy," Prasad said.

A person privy to the discussion told ET, "The minister assured Nadella that the government would welcome all possible technological solutions to bring broadband connectivity to remote areas."

During his visit, Nadella also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley.

The Hyderabad-born Nadella said Microsoft was committed to setting up data centres in India to promote the cloud first and mobile first strategy as a means to empower every citizen and business in the country.

ET was the first to report that Microsoft had filed an application with the wireless planning and coordination wing in October to deploy White-Space technology for a pilot project in Bangalore.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was the first global CEO to speak to the telecom minister for deploying alternate technology — in its case, solar drones — for last mile connectivity, followed by Google, which offered to provide inexpensive internet access across India through a network of helium-filled balloons, and now Microsoft.

While Facebook and Google are yet to put in written requests to the government, Nadella on Friday told Prasad his company is eagerly awaiting the government's approval to begin the pilot.

The White-Fi technology has already been successfully implemented in the US and Singapore and is being tested in Kenya, the Philippines, South Africa and Tanzania, among others. It works on chunks of unused spectrum available in broadcasting bands in the lower frequencies from 200MHz to 700MHz.

The government's Rs 1.13 lakh-crore Digital India initiative envisages delivering e-services such as health and education to every nook and corner of the country over broadband by 2019.

Despite the government laying a nationwide optic fibre network, reaching homes, schools, hospitals and other institutions may require wireless technology, especially in hard-to-reach areas. This is where the technology giants such as Facebook and Microsoft hope to deploy their respective technologies.

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella meets PM Narendra Modi

Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella (left) during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday . PTI

Nadella, son of a retired IAS officer and currently in India on a vacation, made the most of his visit by meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, finance minister Arun Jaitley, communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and other senior government officials on Friday.

“In every meeting, of course, both ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ are top of mind and for us, top of mind in terms of our contribution to India,” Nadella said after his meeting with Jaitley.

A mobile and cloud (Internet)-connected world can empower every individual citizen, business organisation and institution in India, he added. “So, I am looking forward to be a part of both the Digital India and ‘Make in India’,” Nadella said.

“I have requested him to consider electronic manufacturing in India. I have also requested that Microsoft, which has a great profile in the field of social services, digital literacy can promote it in India. We had a very purposeful exchange,” Prasad said after meeting Nadella.

The Hyderabad-born CEO also highlighted that the company is making huge investments in its data centres, the capacity of which could be expanded, depending on the requirement.

Microsoft is keen on collaborating with the government in providing last mile internet connectivity, especially through the wi-fi technology, a government statement said. Technologies of interest to Microsoft includes the white space technology that can be used to provide wi-fi with speeds upto 16 mega bits per second (16 Mbps) in public places. It is being mainly used by state broadcaster Doordarshan.

This was Nadella’s second visit to India after taking over as the global CEO of the technology giant earlier this year.

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Edit Microsoft Office files via Gmail!!!

Google updated Gmail with a new feature which allows to edit Microsoft Office documents from within inbox.

When Office files are emailed as attachments, Gmail now will include an “Edit with Google Docs” options. Selection of this options automatically converts the documents and opens it in Docs, Sheets or Slides.

“We realize that as a Docs user, you still sometimes have to work with different file types, so we often launch updates to make it a little smoother for you,” the company wrote on Google+. “It’s now even easier for you to edit Office files where you often come across them — as attachments in your email.”

This will let for those who don’t have Microsoft office installed, Google notes it’s also benefiticial for collaboration as all changes are automatically synced to the cloud and collaborators can keep tabs on the most recent version of that document at any time.

Google also updated the list to support for fifteen new Microsoft Office file types, which includes .pps and .ppsx presentation files along with templates and macro enabled files.

Company also claims that it has also improved its ability to convert charts, tables and graphics within documents.

There is provision for Users who wish to open and edit Microsoft Office files in Drive without converting the file type can also do so, Google points out with the Office Editing for Docs, Sheets and Slides Chrome Extension. This extension allows users to open and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint files in Google Drive, even if they don’t have Microsoft Office Installed.

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