Acer's Iconia W4 now available in India; Bay Trail inside, but display still disappointing

Acer has launched its Windows 8.1 tablet, the Iconia W4, for the Indian market at a starting price of Rs 24,999. The W4 is a follow up to the W3, the world's first 8-inch Windows tablet, which was brought to India earlier this year, but did not see great deal of success.

The W4 does update the internals, even though the display resolution is still disappointing at a time when smaller tablets and smartphones have a much higher resolution. The 16GB and 64GB variants of the Iconia W4 are priced at Rs 24,999 and Rs 26,999 respectively.At 415 grams, the W4 is 10.75 mm thin and easy to hold in one hand, claims the company. The 8-inch IPS display features 1280x800 pixel resolution, which is quite disappointing, given how the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HDX both have a much higher resolution display. In our opinion, this could be a major deal breaker. Nevertheless, Acer says it has a wide viewing angle of 170 degrees.

Acer's first Windows 8.1 tablet launched in India

The Iconia W4 is powered by the Bay Trail Intel Atom 1.8GHz quad-core processor, which brings improvements in performance, but more importantly conserves power.

There's a 2-megapixel front camera and a 5-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus, but neither of them have any noteworthy features. The 16GB and 32GB storage space can be expanded using the microSD card slot, which is always a good thing in the long run.

Windows 8.1 adds new features such as InstantGo which makes the tablet ready-to-go by keeping data and apps refreshed and up-to-date even when the screen is off, by maintaining an internet connection. It also brings some much-needed improvement to the basic navigation and of course, brings back the Start button to the desktop.

Take a quick look at some of its specifications:

• 8-inch IPS display with 1280x800 pixel resolution
• Wi-Fi, HDMI, Bluetooth
• 32/64GB onboard storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 5-megapixel rear autofocus camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera

Accessories for the Iconia W4 include the Acer Crunch Keyboard, an ultra-slim keyboard that can serve as a tablet stand. A 5.3 mm, rechargeable silver keyboard can be connected to the tablet via Bluetooth. The Acer Crunch Cover also folds out into a tablet stand with multiple positions to suit each user’s reading preferences. Included with the device are the Acer Keyboard Cover, a protection film, a responsive passive stylus, a power bank, an adaptor kit with bag, and a micro USB cable.

What if Bill Gates was your Secret Santa?

It’s the season to be jolly, indeed. With Christmas fast approaching, pretty much everyone’s busy playing Secret Santa. Reddit, like every year, arranged for the event to be played on a large scale, and that threw up a big surprise. A girl just received a Secret Santa gift from none other than Microsoft co-founder and one of the world's richest men, Bill Gates. Redditor Rachel received her Secret Santa presents from a seemingly good guy named Bill. Much to her surprise, when she opened the gifts, she realized that “Bill” was actually Bill Gates. He even sent her a picture with the gifts in his hand, in front of a Christmas tree for Rachel to be able to prove this to naturally disbelieving netizens. After receiving the gifts, Rachel ended up apologizing to Gates for her earlier wishlist, which might not have gone down too well with the former CEO. “ps: Sorry for the apple ipad on my wishlist, that was really awkward,” she wrote.

And here's Bill!

“I thought Bill sounded like a friendly fellow. In fact, I had this whole image of this poor guy named Bill trying to navigate my wishlist full of makeup, nail-polish, glittery things to buy me,” Rachel wrote in a blog post, chronicling her Secret Santa experience. What was in the gift box? Well, Gates sent Rachel a cow plush toy, a travel book 'Journeys of a Lifetime' and a donation in her name to the non-profit, Heifer International. The organization says its motive is to “work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for Earth,” and helps with empowering families with bringing about sustainable agriculture and commerce. They also work with animals, which explains the stuffed cow. Well, a lot of Reddit users will definitely be disheartened that they missed out on Gates, they could still hope to get other celebrity users such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama or even Snoop Dogg, as their own Santa.

2-in-1 devices and hybrids will gain traction in 2014, says Intel

2-in-1 devices, which work as both a PC and tablet, are expected to find more consumer preference in 2014 as prices fall and more people opt for them."In 2013, we saw a lot of OEMs ( original equipment manufacturers) coming out with 2-in-1 devices, which could be used both as a PC and tablet. They called it swivel, hybrids and some other names too," Sandeep Aurora, director, marketing and market development, Intel South Asia, told PTI.

Hybrid...

People chose these devices as it was easy to carry and yet allowed people to continue working, just like they would work on their desktops, on the go, he added."This year, we expect prices to come down a little, which would drive the adoption further," Aurora said. He added the prices could come down to sub-Rs 30,000 as more OEMs launch their products.Currently, 2-in-1s cost Rs 34,000 and above. Talking about the roadmap for 2014, Aurora said the focus for the company is clearly on tablets. "We will have processors for both tabs and smartphones but the focus is more towards tablets. 2-in-1sOIOAlso, going forward all our OEM partners will be manufacturing devices based on Baytrail (Intel's new architecture)," he said.Asus has come out with their first Baytrail powered device, while Acer is launching their Baytrail powered tablet today. "With the introduction of 'Bay Trail' powered devices also, we expect 2-in-1 devices to hit low price points," Aurora said.The Baytrail processors will also power a variety of affordable laptops, desktop PCs and all-in-ones.

Acer's Iconia W4 now available in India; Haswell inside, but display still disappointing

Acer's Iconia W4 now available in India; Haswell inside, but display still disappointing
Acer has launched its Windows 8.1 tablet, the Iconia W4, for the Indian market at a starting price of Rs 24,999. The W4 is a follow up to the W3, the world's first 8-inch Windows tablet, which was brought to India earlier this year, but did not see great deal of success.

The W4 does update the internals, even though the display resolution is still disappointing at a time when smaller tablets and smartphones have a much higher resolution. The 16GB and 64GB variants of the Iconia W4 are priced at Rs 24,999 and Rs 26,999 respectively.At 415 grams, the W4 is 10.75 mm thin and easy to hold in one hand, claims the company. The 8-inch IPS display features 1280x800 pixel resolution, which is quite disappointing, given how the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HDX both have a much higher resolution display. In our opinion, this could be a major dealbreaker. Nevertheless, Acer says it has a wide viewing angle of 170 degrees.

Acer's first Windows 8.1 tablet launched in India

The Iconia W4 is powered by the fourth-generation Intel Atom 1.8GHz quad-core processor, which brings improvements in performance, but more importantly conserves power.

There's a 2-megapixel front camera and a 5-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus, but neither of them have any noteworthy features. The 16GB and 32GB storage space can be expanded using the micro-SD card slot, which is always a good thing in the long run.

Windows 8.1 adds new features such as InstantGo which makes the tablet ready-to-go by keeping data and apps refreshed and up-to-date even when the screen is off, by maintaining an internet connection. It also brings some much-needed improvement to the basic navigation and of course, brings back the Start button to the desktop.

Take a quick look at some of its specifications:

• 8-inch IPS display with 1280x800 pixel resolution
• Wi-Fi, HDMI, Bluetooth
• 32/64GB onboard storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 5-megapixel rear auto-focus camera, 2-megapixel front-facing camera

Accessories for the Iconia W4 include the Acer Crunch Keyboard, an ultra-slim keyboard that can serve as a tablet stand. A 5.3 mm, rechargeable silver keyboard can be connected to the tablet via Bluetooth. The Acer Crunch Cover also folds out into a tablet stand with multiple positions to suit each user’s reading preferences. Included with the device are the Acer Keyboard Cover, a protection film, a responsive passive stylus, a power bank, an adaptor kit with bag, and a micro USB cable.

Sony Playstation 4 at Rs 39,990? Build a kickass gaming PC with that money instead

Unhappy with the price of the PlayStation 4? You’re not alone. Thankfully, you don’t have to spend all that moolah to get a gaming machine that’s just as good, if not better. Here’s what you need to buy to get a kickass gaming PC for the price of a PS4.

The PlayStation 4 sports a $399 price tag internationally

CPU - Intel Core i3-3220Price: Rs 7,650Since this is a strictly gaming machine, we don’t need too much computing power. Instead the Intel Core i3-3220 is stable enough for everyday tasks and when combined with some of our other component picks, it has enough firepower to play most games. It doesn’t make use of Intel's Turbo Boost technology, but is able to execute more instructions per cycle than comparable AMD processors such as the FX-4170.

Motherboard - ASRock B75M-GL Price: Rs 4,250Featuring an LGA1155 Socket, this microATX board has very good set of ports and features, especially for its price. The rear I/O panel gives you separate PS/2 ports for the keyboard and mouse, three kinds of video outputs (D-sub, DVI and HDMI), four USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and jacks for 6-channel audio (courtesy a Realtek ALC662 chip). ASRock has included an additional SATA 6Gb/s connector in addition to five SATA 3Gb/s connectors. RAM - Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHzPrice: Rs 5,500Vengeance is the performance series RAM series from Corsair. The 8GB single RAM stick is rated at 1600MHz, it includes a 10-10-10-27 CAS Latency and quad-channel memory configuration. In addition, the mean-looking black heat spreader should keep things running cool even under high load. If you want to save money on RAM, you can check out GSkill NT DDR3 8GB at Rs 4655 or Corsair XMS 3 8GB at Rs 4850.

Dressed to kill

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TBPrice: Rs 4,100Since you will be playing a lot of games, you will need a higher capacity drive than the PS4’s 500 GB HDD. The Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive makes more sense than something like the WD Caviar Green 1TB even though they are in the same price bracket. That’s because the Seagate drive at 7200RPM is speedier than the 5400RPM WD Green drive. If you want even more speed, you may add in a cache SSD (SanDisk Ready Cache 32GB at Rs 2500). GPU - ASUS R9270X DC2T 2GD5Price: Rs 15,750The ASUS R9270X-DC2T-2GD5, as we saw in our review, delivers performance that is comparable to the Nvidia GTX 760. The GTX 760 is about 8 percent faster, but is also much more expensive at nearly 1.5 times the price of the AMD card. When seen from a pure value perspective, the performance difference does not seem that significant. Build quality is great with this particular model. The heat pipes on top and bottom help keep the temperatures lower and we get two DVI ports, HDMI and DisplayPort on the back panel. The box also bundles a CrossFire cable, which is always a bonus.

The ASUS R9270X also has a black and red coloured metallic shroud which covers the heatsink.

PSU - Antec VP450PPrice: Rs 2,500This entry-level solution gives you everything you need in a power supply without breaking the bank. If you are looking for jazzy lights and glittery paint jobs, then look elsewhere. Here you will find a 120 mm fan for quiet cooling, dual +12V rails for greater stability, and heavy-duty protection circuitry. With 450 watts of Continuous Power, the VP450 is ATX12V version 2.3 compliant. The matte black exterior will also match our next pick. It comes with a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, so you can use a molex-to-6-pin adapter for the other 6-pin port on the graphics card. Cabinet - Cooler Master Elite 310Price: Rs 1,800With the same understated look that has made many fans of the Playstation 4, this cabinet is timeless and will certainly not polarise with its looks, unlike some of the other gaming cabinets. The air vent in the front provides superior ventilation. There’s a front I/O panel for easy access and a security lock on the side panel. This even supports the Antec VP450 which has a 120mm fan, and there’s another 120mm fan in the rear to keep your machine constantly cooled.

Elite 310, a simple cabinet that's built to work

And that’s that. We know we haven’t included a keyboard or a mouse, as those are highly subjective parts of PC building and each person has a different comfort zone for these. In all, our rig comes up to Rs 41,550, around the price of the PS4. But on the positive side, you have games selling at a much lower price point than PS4 launch titles. Add to this the perennial Steam discounts and sales on various games - new and old - which put the PC gamer at a definite price advantage over the console gamer.
Component prices are based on current market prices and they are likely to fluctuate. The memory in particular is very susceptible to price changes. As is usually the case components prices differ from city to city and from shop to shop, so you may end up getting all of these for under Rs 35,000 too. You could also throw in an Xbox 360 controller for Rs 2,525, if you want and it will still be only slightly more than the PS4's price tag. What’s more, unlike the Playstation 4, you will be able to play any game that was released in the past, so no backwards compatibility issues either.

Have more than one follower on Twitter? You're doing very well

Have more than one follower on Twitter? You're doing very well
Now this is interesting. According to a report, the median Twitter account has – wait for it – a single follower! So, if you’re someone who has a modest tally that’s in double digits, or better yet, in triple digits, you should be very happy with yourself, because you’ve got Twitter figured out.The report was headed by Jon Bruner for OReilly Radar and it went through several hundreds of spambots and dormant accounts to pull out some interesting figures about Twitter. Amongst the accounts that have posted in the last 30 days, the median account has just 61 followers. For those of you who have over a thousand followers, you’re a part of the 96th percentile of the user base on Twitter.

You're a big deal!

Burner went through sampling about 4,00,000 Twitter accounts for this test. The research also showed that active Twitter accounts follow a median of 117 users and a recurring trend was that many people – 76 percent of them – followed more people than the number of people following them. Mutual following is best left to #TeamFollowback, but the truth here is that if you have a Twitter account, chances are that you may be following more people and not having them reciprocate the move. Then again, there’s a good chance you’re mostly following celebrities.When Twitter filed for its IPO a couple of months ago, the micro-blogging website claimed that it was serving 200 million monthly active users. By “active”, Twitter essentially refers to the number of people who’ve merely logged in during the past month. This research here, however, considers at least a single tweet made in the past 30 days as “active”.The results cannot be taken at their face value, though, warns Burner. “Not that number of followers is an indicator of quality,” he says. “Twitter’s users are prone to swarms and fads; they flock to famous people as soon as they appear on Twitter, irrespective of both activity and brow height,”

New Intel: 2-in-1 devices to gain traction in 2014

2-in-1 devices, which work as both a PC and tablet, are expected to find more consumer preference in 2014 as prices fall and more people opt for them."In 2013, we saw a lot of OEMs ( original equipment manufacturers) coming out with 2-in-1 devices, which could be used both as a PC and tablet. They called it swivel, hybrids and some other names too," Sandeep Aurora, director, marketing and market development, Intel South Asia, told PTI.

Hybrid...

People chose these devices as it was easy to carry and yet allowed people to continue working, just like they would work on their desktops, on the go, he added."This year, we expect prices to come down a little, which would drive the adoption further," Aurora said. He added the prices could come down to sub-Rs 30,000 as more OEMs launch their products.Currently, 2-in-1s cost Rs 34,000 and above. Talking about the roadmap for 2014, Aurora said the focus for the company is clearly on tablets. "We will have processors for both tabs and smartphones but the focus is more towards tablets. 2-in-1sOIOAlso, going forward all our OEM partners will be manufacturing devices based on Baytrail (Intel's new architecture)," he said.Asus has come out with their first Baytrail powered device, while Acer is launching their Baytrail powered tablet today. "With the introduction of 'Bay Trail' powered devices also, we expect 2-in-1 devices to hit low price points," Aurora said.The Baytrail processors will also power a variety of affordable laptops, desktop PCs and all-in-ones.

Nick Bilton's bestseller 'Hatching Twitter'

Most people who read through Nick Bilton’s Hatching Twitter believed that this could well be turned into a movie. While a feature film is not in the pipeline for the book that spoke about behind-the-scenes moment of the Twitter's early days, a television series definitely is.The series will be developed by Lionsgate, of Mad Men and Anger Management, and more recently, Orange is the New Black fame. In a blog post, Bilton, a New York Times columnist wrote, “I’m thrilled to announce that Hatching Twitter has been optioned by Lionsgate and we will be starting development of a TV series.” Lionsgate, in a press release said that it had appointed Allison Shearmur as the Executive Producer for the show.

Coming to a TV near you soon

The bestseller, whose complete name is “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship and Betrayal,” will reportedly have Bilton himself as the Screenplay Writer. The book made its debut on number 14 of the e-book non-fiction list on the New York Times and number five on the Wall Street Journal’s Hardcover Business list. For those not in the know, Hatching Twitter is a non-fiction based story about how Twitter came into existence and what its creation did to the friendship of its founders. You could probably draw parallels to The Social Network movie which told the story of Facebook’s founding, since this is pretty much turning out to be a new genre now. What's next? How LinkedIn was formed? Terms of the sale were not disclosed and there is no word on when the show goes into production either. What would be interesting is how the showrunners will position this story. If you have read the book, you would know it has its fair share of controversial issues, so we are intrigued as to how the show will deal with these.

Apple starts orders for cylindrical Mac Pro; starts at $2,999

Apple's new cylindrical Mac Pro has been put up for sale in the US. The ultra-powerful machine is priced starting at $2,999 and is assembled in Austin, Texas. Apple isn't making the Pro available for immediate pick up at a retail store. Customers must order online or at a store for delivery or store pickup. Initial orders will be shipped right away, but backups of days or weeks are possible going forward

The India availability has not been announced, although Apple's India website does list the wondrous-looking machine as coming soon. The space-saving desktop is just over 9-inches tall and one-eighth the volume of the previous Mac Pro. Apple has built it around a unified thermal core that allows the system to share thermal capacity across all the processors. It also gets an innovative fan, which makes it as quiet as the Mac Mini.

Now in stores, but buyers will have to order online

Apart from the new design, the Mac Pro packs in the latest Intel Xeon processors with up to 12 cores, dual workstation-class GPUs, six Thunderbolt 2 ports, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory. Apple claims that it offers two times the performance compared to its predecessor with the latest Intel Xeon E5 processors, up to 64GB of RAM, dual AMD FirePro graphics chips with up to 6GB of dedicated memory, and up to 1TB of far faster PCI Express solid state storage. Users will have to rely on the machine’s generous supply of six Thunderbolt 2 ports and four USB 3 ports to connect peripherals or add storage options.It can be powered by 4-core, 6-core, 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon processors running at Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9GHz. Two workstation-class AMD FirePro GPUs with up to 12GB of video memory provide up to seven teraflops of compute power and up to eight times the graphics performance of the previous generation Mac Pro, says Apple. It is also capable of editing full-resolution 4K video streams and playing them in real time.The base model will include an Intel 3.7GHz Xeon E5 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of flash storage, and two AMD FirePro D300 GPUs (capable of supporting up to three 4K displays). The $3,999 (approx Rs 2,46,058) model gets 6-core 3.5GHz Xeon E5 processor, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage, and two AMD FirePro D500 GPUs. Users can also opt for configure-to-order options.

WhatsApp inks deal with Tata Docomo, now serves 30 million users in India

WhatsApp’s popularity in the Indian market is undeniable. The cross-platform messaging app even comes bundled with most handsets these days. It has now emerged that WhatsApp is joining hands with Tata Docomo in India, to let customers access the messenger application for as low as Rs 1 per day.Tata Docomo has launched two new data packs for its pre-paid GSM consumers. The plans will give access to unlimited WhatsApp usage on the network. The packs are priced at Rs 15 with a validity of as many days and Rs 30 for one month. The idea is to allow customers to spend money only on using WhatsApp, especially if they do not wish to make use of other services.

"These data packs will enable Tata Docomo prepay GSM customers to enjoy the hugely popular WhatsApp with specially customised value for money data plans and with unlimited use," the company said in a statement. Tata Docomo has pay per site tariff plans on its website, where users can pick and choose from a combination of packs, allowing them to make the most of their surfing experience. There’s the Mail Combo pack, Social Networking Sites Combo, Gmail+GTalk combo and Yahoo! Mail+ Yahoo! Messenger. There are special packs just to access Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and, surprisingly, even Orkut. The WhatsApp pack has not shown up on the page yet. Tata Docomo in its statement said that it had conducted independent research to realise that users need customised data offerings and want to pay for only the applications that they use. WhatsApp, of course, ranks high on that list. Even as Tata Docomo announced these data packs and released an advertisement for it, Neeraj Arora, Head of Business Development for WhatsApp informed Medianama that the company is now serving 30 million monthly active users in India alone. The timing of these packs could not have been better.

Apple iPad Air to hit stores on December 7, prices start at Rs 35,900

The wait is almost over. Apple's iPad Air will finally be available in India starting December 7, 2013. Their latest tablet will be available for Rs 35,900 for the 16GB Wi-Fi variant in the country. This will be available in silver and space grey variants. Apart from this, the iPad mini with Retina display will also be up for sale on the December 7. The 16GB Wi-Fi model of the iPad mini will be priced at Rs 28,900.

Ingram Micro, Apple’s authorised distribution platform will be making the new iPad Air Available in the country. The newest iteration of Apple’s tablets packs the new A7 chip, which is the same as the one in the iPhone 5s. It will run iOS 7 out of the box.

The iPad Air features a 9.7-inch Retina display with its thinner design. The iPad Air looks more or less like a bigger version of the iPad mini now, with thick bezels of the older iPad gone now. The new iPad Air is supposed to be 20 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the fourth-generation iPad.

A 5-megapixel iSight camera fit onto the iPad Air will allow users to record HD videos at 1080p. The front has an HD FaceTime camera with larger pixels and the camera sensors also have an improved backside illumination. There are also dual microphones for sound recording and noise cancellation. Apple says that the iPad Air can give ten hours worth of battery too.

The iPad mini with Retina features a 7.9-inch display and a bumped up resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels and a pixel density of 326 ppi. It will also house the A7 64-bit desktop-class architecture.

At India launch, Apple iPad Air hogs limelight; iPad mini plays second fiddle

Apple launched the iPad Air and Retina iPad mini in India today, in association with its distribution partner Ingram Micro. While we didn't expect a full house, like the one we saw at the iPhone launch last month, it was not all that dazzling either. Surprisingly, it was the larger and more expensive iPad Air that attracted the most attention. Even at the demo tables set up here, a crowd surrounded the Air while three iPad minis sulked in the corner. Expectedly when sales started the beaming first few customers went for the iPad Air. After the first wave the odd iPad mini did move off the packed shelves. But it was still the larger tablet setting the early pace. We had suspected something of this sort, especially after the IDC report last week hinted at the same.

iPad Air units outnumbered Retina iPad mini

To be fair the number of iPad Air units on sale far outnumbered the iPad mini boxes. It just could be that Apple will be bringing more stock of the smaller tablet to India at a later date. To put the mini at a further disadvantage, the promotional posters around the stage and sales area were all for the iPad Air. While no one is saying there was a bias, there definitely was a bigger push for the Air from a sales perspective.

First receipt for the ipad Air at High Street Phoenix, Mumbai

We were not given any concrete answers when asked which of the tablets was seeing more sales. Nor were we told how many iPads were available for sale at this launch event. But unlike the iPhone launch there is no danger of stock running out for this one. Yes, buyers walked in at a steady clip but it felt like a lukewarm launch for one of the hottest devices in the world.

The iPad Air is available at a starting price of Rs 35,900 for 16GB Wi-Fi-only model while the 16GB Wi-Fi + Cellular is priced at Rs 44,900. The 32GB, 64GB and 128GB Wi-Fi only models are priced at Rs 42,900, Rs 49,900 and Rs 56,900 respectively. The 32GB, 64GB and 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular models are priced at Rs 51,900, Rs 58,900 and Rs 65,900, respectively. The Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular models of the 16GB iPad mini with Retina display are priced at Rs 28,900 and Rs 37,900 respectively. The 32GB, 64GB and 128 GB Wi-Fi only models are priced at Rs 35,900, Rs 42,900 and Rs 49,900 respectively. The 32GB, 64GB and 128GB Wi-Fi + Cellular models are priced at Rs 44,900, 51,900 and Rs 58,900 respectively.

Google could use custom chipsets instead of Intel's for servers: Bloomberg

Google could use custom chipsets instead of Intel's for servers: Bloomberg
Intel could have a much bigger problem on its hands than trying to break the ARM dominance in the smartphone market. Bloomberg reports that Google is considering going the custom way for its server processor needs. Using technology from ARM, Google could move away from Intel’s chipsets.While bringing its own chipset design, has the obvious advantage of better communication between hardware and software, there is as yet no confirmation from the company about a possible move away from Intels’s chips. “We are actively engaged in designing the world’s best infrastructure. This includes both hardware design (at all levels) and software design.” Liz Markman, a Google spokesperson, told Bloomberg.

Google planning to make custom server chips?

Google has been designing its own data centres around the world with two new centres launched in Taiwan and Singapore this week to cater to users in India and China, two of the top three internet populations in the world. These servers power the famous suite of Google search, YouTube and Google services including Gmail. More data centres will be launched around the world as more of the world comes online and joins Google’s burgeoning user base made up of iOS, Android users as well as non-smartphone users. Bloomberg also says there’s a vacancy for a ‘digital design engineer’ at Google with expertise in application-specific integrated circuits.There’s no doubt that a move away will damage Intel’s business; Google is Intel’s fifth largest customer, and makes up about 4.3 percent of the chipset giant’s revenue, according to Bloomberg. Moreover, it has a near-monopolistic market share of 95 percent for servers using PC chips. Google going custom could have a ripple effect on other companies, especially if the move does bring tangible benefits for the company.

Best of iTunes 2013: Candy Crush Saga, Gravity, Duolingo and more!

Best of iTunes 2013: Candy Crush Saga, Gravity, Duolingo and more!
As we are nearing the year end, bigwigs of the tech industry have started throwing in numbers to show how the year has been so far for them. Apple too has announced highlights of 2013 for the company, along with top-selling apps, games and music and more. In the apps category, not surprisingly, Candy Crush Saga has topped the charts as the number one grossing iPhone and iPad App game of 2013. It is also the number one free game on iPhone as well as iPad. On the other hand, the paid games chart was topped by Minecraft. Some other games in Apple Top 10 list include Temple Run 2, Netflix, iBooks, Facebook, Google Maps, YouTube and Pandora. iTunes has announced Duolingo as the iPhone app of the year while Ridiculous Fishing: A Tale of Redemption bags the title of the iPhone game of the year. For the iPad, BADLAND emerges as the game of the year and Disney Animated as the app of the year.

Tops the charts at Best of iTunes 2013

Moving on towards media segments, the movies category of iTunes top 10 charts saw Gravity taking the title of 2013′s best movie and Despicable Me 2 as the best animated movie. Best male performance went to 12 Years a Slave, while best female performance went to Blue Jasmine. However, the best-selling movie of them all was Skyfall. Talking about TV shows, the show of the year was bagged by Breaking Bad: The Final Season. The first season of Orphan Black was awarded the best discovery and the fourth season of Duck Dynasty was the best reality TV show of 2013. Heading to the music category, “The 20/20 Experience” has made Justin Timberlake the artist of the year. It is also the #1 album at iTunes 2013. Lorde’s “Royals” was 2013′s song of the year, and “Good Kid, M.A.A.D.” as the year’s breakthrough album. In the podcasts category, MSNBC Rachel Maddow won the year’s best in news and politics. The best comedy went to The Adam and Dr. Drew Show, best social science to AsapScience, and best society and culture went to Stuff You Should Know. Finally, come the books and podcasts category. In the books segment, Tenth of December by George Saunders is the best fiction of the year while One Summer by Bill Bryson grabs the best non-fiction title.

BEYONCÉ Shatters iTunes Store Records

It’s not enough that Beyonce is one of the highest selling artists ever, she had to accomplish more. With her new self-titled album, it was announced by Apple that BEYONCÉ has become the fastest selling album ever on the iTunes Store with a staggering 8,28,773 albums sold in just its first three days. BEYONCÉ also broke the US first week album sales record with 6,17,213 sold and proved to be a global success going to number one in 104 countries.

BEYONCÉ, is the fifth solo studio album by Beyoncé, which was made available exclusively worldwide on the iTunes Store on December 13 by Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records. The album features Frank and Drake Ocean also featuring her family members music producer Jay Z and their daughter Blue Ivy. It is the artist’s first visual album. BEYONCÉ comprises 14 new songs and 17 videos shot around the world from Houston to New York City to Paris, and Sydney to Rio de Janeiro, all before the album’s release. Hear the snippets to find out why Beyonce managed a miraculous sales in the dwindling sales of music.

Samsung Galaxy S4, Nokia Lumia 520 top 2013 smartphone search trends in India

Google has released its Year-End Zeitgeist list for 2013, wherein iPhone 5s takes the third spot followed by Samsung S4 on the eighth spot in terms of technology-related searches, globally. We decided to check if India follows a similar pattern, and to our surprise, the Google India phone trends tells a different story altogether.

It's clear from the list that India has no love for Apple. While Micromax and Samsung take three spots each, we didn’t find any Apple smartphone in the top 10 charts, despite the iPhone 4 selling well thanks to Apple's various offers. The Google Phone trends in India shows Samsung’s Galaxy S4 as the most searched smartphone, followed by another hotseller, the Nokia Lumia 520. The Lumia 520 is the most popular Windows Phone device in the world and its appearance is not surprising. Indian company Micromax also features on the list heavily. Its Canvas 2 takes the third spot. Samsung’s blockbuster Galaxy Grand takes the fourth spot and while another Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy S3 sits on the tenth spot.

The top smartphones according to Google search trends

Micromax is the only Indian company to have made it to this list, and has taken up three spots in all; one of these spots is occupied by Micromax Canvas, the brand name for one its smartphone ranges. The company has been continuously churning out phones covering almost every price range, giving users plenty of options to choose from.

The phone trends also show users searching for 'Nokia Lumia' devices, without mentioning any particular device. “Nokia Lumia” takes the seventh spot in the list, which is a tad higher than Canvas 4 in eighth position and the Google Nexus 4 in ninth position. Despite the buyback offers by Apple, the iPhones don’t make it to the top 10 phone trends in India. Maybe, Apple didn’t really connect with the Indian audiences, especially with the 'cheaper' iPhone 5c. While Apple was a no-show in the list, Sony managed to snag one spot with its Xperia Z sitting on the sixth spot.

Subway Surfers slides on to Windows Phone 8

Yet another cool app from iOS and Android app stores has made its way to Windows Phone. Subway Surfers, the hit game has come to Windows Phone 8 devices and is available for free already.For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the apps fad, Subway Surfers is an endless runner game that has been available on Android and iOS for a long time now. Quite like you do in Temple Run, you need to keep running and dodging obstacles for as long as it’s possible. Here, the setting is an endless railway track with coaches parked as obstacles or gunning for you. Seeing as how you are the miscreant here, there's a dogged policeman chasing you, along with his dog.

Windows Phone's India handle made the announcment via a tweet:

Any guesses who this is? *Hint: This dude loves surfing on the tracks! #WindowsPhone pic.twitter.com/Fl6SGOXpMn

— Windows Phone India (@WindowsPhoneInd) December 18, 2013

The app has been developed by Kiloo, a company based in Denmark and features characters Jake, Fresh and Tricky. The player essentially portrays the character of a hooligan (or guerilla artist, depending on which side of the aisle you sit on) caught in the midst of a spray painting job in a train yard.

Now for Windows Phone too

Special objects such as a jetpack, jumping shoes and a hoverboard are peppered through the track and the object is to run as long as possible, while completing mini challenges along the way. You can also challenge and help your friends from within the game. In keeping with the festive spirit, a Santa Claus character has been introduced for Subway Surfers for Windows Phone, but he doesn’t come bearing gifts. In fact, the Santa is none other than the grumpy inspector chasing you. Running away from Santa? This could end up confusing kids.The game download size is about 27MB and even while it's free, there are some in-app purchases. You can get Subway Surfers on the Windows Phone Store.

Wait for these games before buying the Playstation 4

Wait for these games before buying the Playstation 4
Sony’s Playstation 4 has an exorbitant price tag in India. If you want to buy more than one controller, then you are going to have to fork over more than the Rs 39,990 for the stock console and a single DualShock 4. With each controller and the Playstation Eye priced at Rs 4,990 each, you could be looking at a bill of over Rs 50,000, depending on your needs. Add to it the problem of lack of launch games for the PS4 and you are looking at expensive console with very few games to play.Of course, it’s always best to wait a few months before buying a new device so the price falls down, but in the Playstation 4’s case, the deal is sweetened by the launch of more games meant specifically for the console. Here are six PS4 games that make the waiting worth it. ThiefThe new Thief is set to continue the series' tradition of first-person stealth, seen in games such as Dishonored, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Assassin's Creed. The game is set to release for the PS4 in February next year and there’s a major new mechanic called Focus being introduced this time around. A bit like the Detective Mode from the Arkham games, it will reportedly highlight details such as scalable walls, extinguishable lights and fingerprints which can be used to your advantage. Check out this gameplay trailer for Thief, which shows protagonist Garrett running around stealing things in typical Thief fashion.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom PainWe are huge fans of the Metal Gear Solid series and Phantom Pain is such a highly-anticipated game, that they decided its prologue Ground Zeroes should be game itself. This lines up with the Metal Gear Solid tradition of the second and third games being divided into two acts – a small prologue act and a bigger main act. So naturally our excitement for Phantom Pain knows no bounds. Phantom Pain is slated for a late 2014 release post the spring launch for Ground Zeroes.

Big Boss will be getting a prosthetic hand

inFamous: Second SonAlso scheduled to release in February, inFamous seems to be taking a darker turn in terms of story compared to the previous games. While they were dark and gritty, this one looks like a straight out dystopian world that wouldn’t look out of place in Watchmen. As is obvious from the previous games in the series, Cole will not be returning as the main protagonist of inFamous: Second Son. It looks like this time around, we will get to explore powers based around the basic elements as opposed to lightning powers. Watch this trailer to see how Second Son will shape up. DestinyThis one will be an FPS, as is par for the course when it comes to Bungie. The company calls Destiny a “shared-world shooter”, which means that it will have a persistent world, much like you have in MMORPGs. Again, as is usual for Bungie games, Destiny will be a sci-fi shooter where players will get to explore the solar system. As Guardians, players will fight alien species like Sandeaters, War Rhinos and Spider Pirates. Other enemies sound even more awesome, and include time-travelling robots and space zombies. The game is expected to have drop-in co-op, hence the always-online requirement, and will also have a slight magical element to it. Here’s a video of the gameplay

Destiny is shaping up to be a fantastic title

Watch DogsYou play Aiden Pearce, hacker extraordinaire and a new type of vigilante who, with the help of his smartphone, will use his ability to hack into Chicago’s central operating system (ctOS) and control almost every element of the city. The multiplayer element sounds really neat too, with Aiden having to stop other players from hacking into the game using omnipresent security cameras, personal information of the target, control systems such as traffic lights or public transportation etc. Check out this lengthy gameplay trailer.

The Witcher 3: Wild HuntPossibly the last ever Witcher game, we are dying to see exactly what CDProjekt has been up to. The game is said to be complex as it is and the world in this edition is said to be gigantic - 20 percent larger than Skyrim, with players taking about 40 minutes to cover it on horseback. The Witcher 3 will have an animated and narrated storybook and flashback sequences to help players keep up with the game's confusing main storyline and side-plots. To help with pacing, The Witcher 3's regions will have "event clusters" which will break up the rhythm of missions by giving simple objectives. Pacing will also be improved by use of quests, which include monster hunting and minigames.

Witcher 3 to have a massive world

Any others you are itching to play? Let us know

Xbox One listed online with EMI options

It’s console season and with the Xbox One hitting stores in the initial launch countries next week, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing the console in India too. This could happen through the grey market or through online retailers shipping to India, but we’ve just spotted an Xbox One listing on Indian retailer Snapdeal’s website.The Microsoft console has been put on pre-booking, where buyers will have to pay Rs 1,999 for the console and the rest of the amount on the release of the product. The full price of the console is listed as Rs 40,000, which sounds like a rather arbitrary amount given the $499 price tag of the console.

The cloud could bring backwards compatibility to the Xbox One

It must be noted that the Xbox One will only release in India in an official capacity late next year. However, the listing says the Xbox One will be released in December 2013, which is something we are seeing for the first time. The console comes with one-year warranty from Microsoft. The Xbox One will officially launch in the USA on November 22 and is scheduled to hit 14 countries in the first launch phase. The second phase has not yet been announced, but India is not likely to feature in this list either. Snapdeal has also put out EMI options for the Xbox One for various tenors, though it’s not yet known how they will fulfil the delivery to those who pre-book the console.

Google and HP halt sales of Chromebook 11

Google and HP have are now pausing the sales of the recently released Chromebook 11. According to the official announcement, the decision was taken after receiving a small number of user reports stating that the chargers included with the device have been damaged due to overheating during use. Both companies are currently working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to “identify the appropriate corrective action, and will provide additional information and instructions as soon as possible.” The cautionary note warns users not to use the original charger provided with the product. In the interim, users can continue to use their Chromebook 11 with other micro-USB chargers that fit the laptop. The computer can also be re-charged with power cords that work with many mobile devices.

HP and Google halt sales of Chromebook 11

The $279 Chromebook was announced last month, and is positioned as a more affordable alternative to pricier models currently in the market. The laptop comes with an 11.6-inch display when measured diagonally and weighs in at 1.04 kgs. Although its price is in line with most other Chrome OS notebooks, the Chromebook 11 comes with many features found in more expensive devices, including the $1,299 Chromebook Pixel. Unlike Windows and Mac laptops, Chromebooks relies on continuous Internet connections to run Gmail, Google Docs and other online services. Many apps don’t run directly on the device but over the Internet. The devices also come with relatively little storage, 16GB, as documents, photos and other files are supposed to be stored online.

The companies made a few trade-offs to keep the price of the laptop low. The laptop doesn’t come with a touch screen and the display’s resolution isn’t as sharp as the Chromebook Pixel’s. The Chromebook 11 also makes use of a plastic frame instead of a metal one, although there is magnesium underneath to keep the laptop sturdy.

The laptop is still available on the Google Play Store, although the listing says that the laptop will be “coming soon” to the Indian market. Taking the latest announcement into consideration, though, it seems unlikely that the Chromebook 11 will be hitting this market any time soon.