NEW DELHI :  While Apple has exclusive stores that can give consumers a taste of iPhones and iPads even if they are just checking out the devices and not buying them, people looking to get an Android phone often have to rely on the advice of phone dealers. Spice Mobility, a company that also sells Android phones, plans to change it. It has opened two stores dedicated to Android devices. One is in Noida at the Great India Palace Mall and the other store is in Koramangala, Bangalore.   The stores, called AndroidLand, will sell Android devices from various manufacturers, including Samsung, Sony Sony, HTC, Lenovo, Xolo, Micromax and Karbonn. The stores will have live demo units and

Call it a tale of two strategies. Korean chaebols Samsung and LG waged furious battles against each other and the rest of the Indian consumer durables industry a decade ago. Today, LG claims leadership, but that's not enough. It wants a bigger slice of the premium market.    Samsung shot up the sales and perceptual charts with a record run from its mobile division. It is now trying to transfer some of that equity to its durables business.    As Nilesh Gupta, CEO, Vijay Sales puts it, "Most marketers are looking for profitability and not market share apart from the mobile category. They tell us if you cannot sell, don't buy. They used to go halfway dow

A picture is worth a 1000 words. So how many words is a 4-image collage worth? Sometimes, a nice collage is the best way to share an experience quickly. It takes minutes to make, it's easy to share, and rather than bombarding your friends with several photos, you can only send one that tells the whole story.   The tools below will help you create beautiful collages from your images, no matter which platform you're on.   Picisto Picisto is a feature-rich collage maker that employs an interesting business model. It's not completely free to use (although all basic features are), but you can choose which features you want to unlock, and do this using "Picisto

BANGALORE: In yet another indication that Infosys is trying to put the focus back on its traditional services, the company is cutting the strength of its R&D arm, called Infosys Labs, and is moving these employees to billable projects on the IT services side.   The Labs division was a technology and domain-focused team of 600, developing proprietary technologies . The plan is to reduce the strength by at least 30% over time, said sources familiar with the development .   Some employees will be moved to billable positions to increase revenue productivity . "Delivery managers in Labs have been asked to 'let out' people to other projects . If an employee refus

SEOUL: Samsung Electronics launched the world's first smartphone with a curved display, a variant of the Galaxy Note which moves the Asian giant a step closer to achieving wearable devices with flexible - even unbreakable - screens.   Curved displays are on the frontline of Samsung's innovation war with rivals such as Apple and LG Electronics, as the South Korean firm seeks to expand its lead in the slowing market for high-end smartphones.   "It's a step forward for having unbreakable gadgets and flexible devices eventually. But for now, the new phone is more of a symbolic product," said Hana Daetoo Securities analyst Nam Dae-jong, adding that Samsung

NEW DELHI : Internet is abuzz with speculations on the next-generation Samsung Galaxy S smartphone. According to reports, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 will be water and dust-resistant.   The report, which comes courtesy Korean language ET News, also claims that the company is working on a dust and water-proof version of Galaxy Note 3, likely to be called Galaxy Note 3 Active.   With these, Samsung would be treading the path of Sony which has several water- and dust-proof devices.   Earlier this year, Samsung launched several variants of the Galaxy S4, including Galaxy S4 Active. Samsung Galaxy S4 is a dust- and water- resistant version of Galaxy S4. Apart from th

NEW DELHI : Internet is abuzz with speculations on the next-generation Samsung Galaxy S smartphone. According to reports, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S5 will be water and dust-resistant.   The report, which comes courtesy Korean language ET News, also claims that the company is working on a dust and water-proof version of Galaxy Note 3, likely to be called Galaxy Note 3 Active.   With these, Samsung would be treading the path of Sony which has several water- and dust-proof devices.   Earlier this year, Samsung launched several variants of the Galaxy S4, including Galaxy S4 Active. Samsung Galaxy S4 is a dust- and water- resistant version of Galaxy S4. Apart from th

MUMBAI : Google is making a big push to boost YouTube usage in India and is in talks with direct-to-home cable providers to bring the service to televisions screens, its global director of platform partnerships, Francisco Varela, said.    Varela, who is on his first trip to India, said the country was among the video service's fastest-growing markets and that talks were on with partners to boost usage further. Strategically, YouTube is an important part of Google's revenues, which crossed $50 billion (about Rs 3.1 lakh crore) in 2012.    About 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube and about 100 hours of video are uploaded to the s

In the beginning, computers were the size of buildings. To use one, you walked into it. Over the decades, they grew small enough to sit on a desk, then to carry in a briefcase, then to keep in your pocket. And now we're entering the age of computers so small we wear them like jewellery.    Just what kind of jewellery, however, has yet to be decided. Will we wear our computers on our foreheads, as with Google Glass? Or will we wear them on our wrists, as with the new Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch ($300)?    Apple's iWatch is only a rumour. But Samsung's Galaxy Gear watch is here now. It's ambitious, impressive, even amazing. But it won't be ado

While Windows 8 users will get the new Windows 8.1 upgrade as a free download next month, Microsoft is making it easier for those with older versions of Windows to install its latest operating system. According to a post on a company blog, the full stand-alone version of Windows 8.1 will be available both as a download and as a retail DVD.    Windows 7 users will be able to buy Windows 8.1 for a list price of $119.99 starting October 18. The installation should keep the files and folders on the computer intact during the upgrade process from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1, but desktop applications will need to be reinstalled. You may want to start looking for the original installer d

Here are top 10 destinations to catch the best spectacle...   1. Haleakala National Park, Hawaii, USA Boarding a bus in the wee hours of the morning is a pain, particularly on vacation when the greatest indulgence is sleeping in. But the alarm-clock acknowledgement is worth it if the payoff is watching a sunrise from above the clouds, on the top of a volcano. Various van tours offer the trip through Haleakala National Park in Maui, picking visitors up at 3 am and dropping them off to see the event from the summit. The view is worth the travel time!   2. Svalbard, Norway The sun rising here holds an almost magical appeal for visitors. Situated north of the Arctic Circle,

WASHINGTON: Imagine if you had a watch to tell you the exact seconds, minutes, days and years left in your life?    A new digital wristwatch can help users determine how long they will live, it has been claimed.   Wearers of the watch, named Tikker, are required to fill out a personal questionnaire on their health history and age. This sets a timer which shows the exact seconds, minutes, days and years left in their life, tech website Mashable reported.    Designers of the watch say their intention is to help users avoid wasting time in their lives.    "I think we can have a better life, and make better choices, if we are more aware of

BERLIN : A German scientist has developed a software which assists users in identifying and learning keyboard shortcuts so they can become as fast as expert users.   If somebody wants to shift text elements within a Word document from one position to another, he usually uses the mouse. This procedure is rather cumbersome for the user, since he first needs to click and highlight the text element before he can put it at the appropriate place.   The user could avoid such complications by using a few shortcut keys, so-called hotkeys, instead. However, users frequently do not know enough keyboard shortcuts to work with them efficiently, or are not aware of the available com

SEOUL : LG Electronics's display unit said it will start mass production of curved smartphone displays as the South Korean phone maker plans to launch a smartphone with the new screens next month to catch bigger rival Samsung Electronics.    Samsung said last month it would introduce a smartphone with a curved display in October as the world's top handset maker seeks to set the pace of hardware innovation amid slowing growth in the high-end smartphone market.    Curved displays are in the early stages of development and allow bendable or foldable designs that could eventually allow mobile and wearable gadgets to take new forms that could radically change t

NEW DELHI : HTC One mini, the smaller version of HTC One smartphone, may finally be launched in India soon.    Though the phone has been listed on the Taiwanese company's Indian website for long, there has been no word when the company would launch it in the country. But online retailers have started selling the smartphone, even though it continues to be listed as 'Coming Soon' on HTC India's site.    At least two online sellers, Flipkart and Infibeam, have started selling HTC One mini with manufacturer warranty. Infibeam is taking pre-orders for the smartphone for Rs 35,054, with delivery date of October 11. On the other hand, Flipkart is selling

NEW DELHI : The race for the first curved smartphones is on and South Korean giants Samsung and LG are eyeing to draw first blood. Samsung has already announced its plans to launch a phone with curved screen this month, while LG has not confirmed plans to unveil such a device yet.   After rumours of LG bringing out the curved G Flex phablet hit the internet, specifications of Samsung's curved smartphone have also leaked online.   Tech website AndroidSAS has leaked the specifications of the upcoming Samsung smartphone. Contrary to earlier reports, it says that Samsung would not be bringing out a curved variant of the Galaxy Note 3, but instead would release an all-n

MUMBAI : Last year's placement season at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) saw Facebook make one of the most lucrative offers to a handful of students. This year, the social networking firm has not even registered for placements at any of the IITs, leaving several hopefuls disappointed.   Though the current global economic slowdown has not had a major impact on the total number of companies registering at IITs, some big names are yet to show up, placement co-ordinators told TOI.   At IIT-Bombay, for instance, approximately 210 companies have registered so far compared with last year's total of 280. Avijit Chatterjee, professor-in-charge for placemen

NEW DELHI : Cloud computing has in the last few years caught the imagination of IT leaders in emerging nations like India, Brazil and China who are excited about its transformational and innovative potential while in developed markets it is mostly seen as a cost-cutting tool, says a global study.    "IT leaders in emerging nations like India, Brazil and China are more upbeat about Cloud given its transformational and innovative potential; in developed markets it is mostly seen as a tool for cost-cutting. Despite existing and potential challenges, India respondents cited a high level of satisfaction with their existing cloud providers," said the study done by Cisco Con

Traditionally, if you want to really customize your Android experience, you have to root your phone and flash a new ROM -- essentially a whole new version of Android -- that has the features you want.   If you don't want to go that far, or you only want to tweak specific parts of Android, you have another option: It's called the Xposed Framework, and you can use it to customize your phone from top to bottom, all without flashing a new ROM.    Getting started: What the Xposed Framework is, and what you'll need The Xposed Framework is a series of modules that allow you to control different aspects of your Android phone, all the way down to the system level. I

SAN FRANCISCO: Once Twitter enters life as a publicly traded company, it will have to satisfy Wall Street's demands for constant growth.   So get ready, Twitter users: You are going to see more ads in your message stream, especially if you live overseas.   You may also see Twitter become more like a flash-sale site, with offers to buy products appearing in your message stream along with a way to buy them with a quick click or tweet.   In documents filed on Thursday to inform investors ahead of its initial public offering of stock, Twitter noted that it had been greatly expanding its inventory of advertising slots, especially for promoted tweets, which are spons