New iOS & Android App for Passport Services Make India First in the World

The Ministry of External Affairs, , Government of India (MEAIndia) has launched yesterday Apple iOS and Android apps for all Passport Services in India with the help of this app  now you can track your passport application and in the next couple of months you can even apply for passport through this app and that's too absolutely free, this is called 'Mobile 2.0' and it has started in government department as well so much so that India became first country in the world to do so.

With MEAIndia iOS App and MEAIndia Android app India became first country in the world, where its Foreign Ministry has digitized its presence and process through mobile app and out all info into people's hand. Apart from passport services the mobile app acts as single window source of all information related to Ministry's citizen centric services and outreach activities such as - Visa/Counsellor services, Haj Yatra, Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, public diplomacy services, updates of all 124 Indian missions in the world and Passport services of-course.

The users can join in for discussion on issues & post comments and if on your foreign trip, you need emergency consular assistance, this MEAIndia app will come handy for sure by finding nearest Indian Mission/ Post and establish contact. You can even locate nearest passport centre, download forms and calculate fees.

Meanwhile, in less than 24 hours after its launch,  the MEAIndia app has topped the charts of free category of the Apple app store. The mobile application is completely user oriented, intuitive and interactive with smart visuals/graphics.

With MEAIndia  app you can also get information on Haj and Kailash Manasarovar Yatra by providing you the latest Haj News and providing details of your flight, accommodation and tour operator. The app also helps you apply for the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra and track your selection status. Users will be able to download and watch pictures and documentaries on India, share and contribute their own pictures and suggestions or even follow the prime minister on his visits/missions abroad.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is the first government ministry department to have a mobile app for smartphone users. Besides providing vast information on India’s foreign policies and activities, the app users can also take part in quiz and win Rs. 1,000 e-vouchers for buying books online.

 

MapMe: GPS Mobile Tracking of Fleet and Employees

MapMe.net is a new GPS tracking Application from Barcelona startup made exclusively for business use with which you can track your employees, your vehicles etc. It serves as gps advanced fleet/employees tracking system for medium or large companies with high volume of devices, with detailed positions as distance - KM, speed; multi device, geofencing, routes, reports,etc.

MapMe is very suitable and economical for business such as Fleet Management, Private Car Services, Trucking Companies, Rental Car Companies, Taxi Services, Bus Companies for individual and families however there is another service by same umbrella company and the app is  - WhereAreYouGPS for Android and BlackBerry devices

Traditional fleet tracking solution happened to be hardware devices where separate devices are installed to track your employees, vehicles etc. now MapMe has brought the economical alternatives to hardware which is way less in cost incurred for same. After signing-up with the Mapme.net you can install MapMe Android app and MapMe Blackberry and whitin few minutes start tracking via desktop app.

You can track multiple devices:, just install the application on device you want to track and click on 'Link to existing account' checkbox at device registration form of main MapMe control panel website. Use your account Email and Password and the device will be added to your existing account.



Using MapMe you can get up-to-date & accurate GPS locations, collect vehicles speed, get detailed reports, monitor employees and even send locations when no GPS signal is available.

The MapMe services are free however with limited services such as - you will receive tracking updates every 10 minutes for the first 24 hours, after this time, you will receive tracking updates every 60 minutes from 8AM until 2PM. For businesses paid plans of  $2/device monthly and annual plan of $19 is there to give unrestricted services with more benefits.

 

Microsoft India Consolidates Startup Offerings Under Single Umbrella

Microsoft India today announced to bring its seed fund, startup accelerator and BizSpark programs into single umbrella and consolidates all startup related offerings under a single program. In alignment with the recent Microsoft Ventures announcement, Microsoft India will now offer startups a single point of entry to engage with Microsoft through a broad-based and holistic approach--featuring a seed fund, an accelerator program and the community evangelism program called BizSpark.

Microsoft Ventures in India will be spearheaded by Mukund Mohan. Ravi Narayan, previously the Managing Director of MentorPartners, has joined the team and will be responsible for Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and its connections with other community initiatives. Kattayil Rajinish Menon will drive broad community engagements as part of the BizSpark program for startups with other accelerators, incubators, industry forums as well as Microsoft customers and partners in India.

Announcing this change, Mohan said: "Through this coordinated effort, we will now engage with entrepreneurs at every stage of their journey from ideation to maturity and support them with compelling offerings. Our community evangelism program will provide entrepreneurs easy access to technology and resources, so that they can focus on exploring ideas. The accelerator will provide access to mentors and technical experts so that they can convert their ideas into products. The fund will offer seed investments to startups that demonstrate early business success. In all, through one focused effort we will provide the tools, resources and expertise that startups need as they innovate, build and grow."

"Taking up this consolidated approach was crucial in a country like India where the startup ecosystem is evolving very fast. Since 2006, there has been a 302 per cent growth in number of new companies, varied not just in terms of technology and ideas but also the support they need to be successful. Through this holistic approach, we will now be able to touch more startups and support them in their journey to success," Mohan added.

Ravi Narayan, who has been a serial entrepreneur and investor, feels that the Indian startup ecosystem will immensely benefit from this consolidated effort. "Startups already have enough to worry about.  Their access to Microsoft, and its vast and varied resources will now become easy and smooth. With its breadth of offerings and its extremely strong customer and partner base, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help startups in ways that very few can match. I am very excited to be part of the team that will lead this change," Narayan said.

Explaining the community evangelism program, Menon said: "Anyone with a great idea can benefit from it, especially those who are proposing solutions to real world problems or creating meaningful innovations. By providing them access to Microsoft software, world-class technology support and our huge partner base when they most need it and can least afford it, we will enable them to have a better chance of business success. BizSpark will continue be our premium SAAS offering with a growing focus on the Cloud."

Google vs Apple in App Store Race [Infographic]

Since 2008 mobile apps are becoming one of the important things in daily life of urban population, when two big tech companies Google & Apple released their app stores for Android and iOS respectively. Neomobile has done an infographic analysis for both major app store market.

In 2013 Google claimed that the number of Android activations will reach 900 million, compared with 600 million of activations of Apple's iOS devices. Apple recently announced historic 50 billionth download on iOS app store, one other hand Google said to have 48 billion from its app store - Google Play, with 2 billion downloads/month versus 1.8 billion/month of Apple iOS app store.

In terms of revenue Apple is ahead of Google Play store, Apple's daily revenue of applications in the top 200 grossing was $5.1M in April 2013, which is 4.6 times higher than the 200 top applications in Google Play store, which had daily revenue of $1.1M.

WhatsApp Messenger a mobile app by WhatsApp, Inc. is a free app in Google Play but a paid one in the Apple app
store, it still made more money in Google Play in three large European countries: Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Apple also leads Google in terms of total downloads per device sold which is 83 Apps per device sold on other hand Google's Android downloads per android device activation is 53 apps.

Although Apple leads the way with Google in terms of revenue as well, nevertheless Google Play store's growth has increased significantly over last six months. While only 19% of the combined revenue came from Google Play in November 2012, this share went up by 8 percentage points to 27% in April 2013.

[Top Image: Flickr]

Nokia Lumia 625, A Low-Cost Phone with a Big 4.7-inch screen

Nokia lately has unveiled a low-cost smartphone - Nokia Lumia 625 with big 4.7 inch LCD super-sensitive touchscreen, it is said to be Nokia’s largest screen on a Windows based phone to date. It is available in bright orange, yellow, bright green, white and black changeable skins which is polycarbonated and gives the surface of phone a translucent quality.

Nokia Lumia 625 is 4G LTE-ready phone and will be available in India, China and other countries in the next few months till September this year as expected with price tag of around RS.11,800 approx. (USD$220). The Windows Phone 8 based smartphone comes with 1.2-GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 512 MB RAM, 8 GB internal storage and 5 megapixel of autofocus primary camera. The phone also comes bundled with Nokia's Music - which offers ad-free, subscription-free music, photography and navigation apps like Nokia Music, Nokia Smart Camera, Nokia Cinemagraph, other apps such as Maps, Drive, and Transport.

The only thing it lag is low RAM which is just 512MB although it has 8 GB of internal storage, Nokia is known of quality of its camera snaps and its high-quality lenses. The priced tag with such as features and cool candy colored looks are big price for value if you buy it.

Tech specs

Display: 4.7 inch WVGA @ 201ppi with Sunlight Readability Enhancement, High Brightness Mode, Color Enhancement and Super Sensitive Touch

Battery: 2000 mAh; talk time – up to 15.2 hours (3G)

Processor: 1.2GHz, Dual Core Snapdragon S4

Size/Weight: 133.25 x 72.25 x 9.15 mm, 159g

Connectivity: USB2.0, BT 4.0+ LE, WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g/n, A-GPS and Glonass, 3.5 mm audio connector

Camera: 5-megapixel autofocus, LED flash, 1080p@30fps; VGA front facing camera

Memory: 512MB RAM; 8GB storage with support for up to 64GB SD card

SharingDard is an Indian Social Network to Share Secrets and Emotions

A new kind of social network that moves around the emotions of its users is fastly getting popularity among Indian users, SharingDard.com is new emotional network website from Mumbai startup aims at achieving a noble cause of providing every single human being who has emotional turmoil, anxiety, stress, depression etc to share on this website and get advice or suggestions.

Psychologically and scientifically studies suggest that emotional & mental disturbances can be reduced if one speaks it out or shares it with a person who has had similar experiences. SharingDard.com gives a chance to the people to register for free and without revealing their identity anonymously share their problems, secrets, emotions, feelings or other issues etc. The website has been launched on 19th May 2013 and gained popularity steadily.

The website also have eminent psychologist, psychotherapists and social workers and also backed by famous social activists such as Ms. Cindrella Prakash of Satyamev Jayate fame, who is also a social worker in the stream of Child Sexual Abuse, to endorse our cause and back brand SharingDard.com.

The website is truly provide vent and exlet for emotions and turmoil one could have and can feel more light-hearted if reveal it through this kind of online tool although in order to lure and attract visitors from social networks people already visiting the UI (User-interface) has to be more attractive and minimalist.

The Mumbai startup website project has been founded by 3 social entrepreneurs of eminent management institute IIM Lucknow. The website has around 10k users across 60 countries.

Notably there is a similar online place where people can share their secrets called - PostSecret.com but its more of a blog and an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard and PostSecret publish it with pictures and unlike to SharingDard don't give advice or suggestions.

Largest Hacking - 1.5 million MasterCard and Visa Card Numbers Stolen

In one of the largest hacking scam in US history the US government has accused five men from Russia and the Ukraine of masterminding one of the largest hacking scheme where hackers stole credit card numbers belonging 1.5 million customers of world’s two largest credit card processors - MasterCard and Visa and other as well and stealing more than $300 million from at least three of the companies they attacked. Two of the mastermind hacker men are in police custody, while three others are on the loose and considered fugitives.

Today the international credit card processor was blocked by Visa after it reported the possibility of a major security breach as reported by Wall Street Journal. The hackers from Russia and Ukraine reportedly hacked NASDAQ, Visa, J.C. Penney, 7-Eleven and JetBlue, among other companies from last 7 years almost i.e. from 2005 till early last year.

The two largest credit card processors MasterCard and Visa didn't reveal what allowed hackers to gain access into the system however they reportedly told that it was result of a third-party vendor and not their own internal systems. The affected Visa and MasterCard customers have not yet been notified that their account information was stolen.

The Wall Street Journal reports that customers' names, addresses and Social Security numbers were not compromised, the credit card numbers were only downloaded during the attack and didn't succeed in gaining more information using the card numbers.

[Image - Flickr, Joel Richards]

Dotmach, a Stunning Work Management Tool launched by Kerala Startup

Around two weeks before Trivandrum, Kerala based Startup Cloudion Technology Services launched - Dotmach, an online work management tool or better known as Team Collaboration application that can transform the way people collaborate and communicate inside a team.The app works across all devices handle simple to sophisticated work management and team collaboration tasks such as - workflow such as emails, chat applications, project management tools, Content sharing tools.

Dotmach unifies features like social interaction, content collaboration, team chat, task management, event organizing etc on a single platform. The UI of dotmach is aesthetically pleasing, that makes it one of the most user-friendly enterprise application from India. The workspaces and projects inside dotmach offers you really good project management features. The social interaction features in Dotmach like thanks, polls, ideas, status, like, comments etc keep the employees motivated and engaged during their work.



External collaboration feature in Dotmach lets one easily & securely collaborate their work with outside company contacts, and get things done fast. Share files, assigns tasks and communicate with guest members such as clients, partners etc in a secure way.

Dotmach offers you Machbox, which is its own cloud system, as a centralized content management system where you store, share and collaborate on documents and other rich media using the same. You can import from cloud and share with your team easily no matter where you store your files. MachBox is also integrated with cloud storage services like Box.net and Dropbox.



The 1- time download feature offers high security for your documents, which provides restricted one time access. The files in machbox can be protected by password. You can also set expiry time for your documents while you are sharing it with your teammates.

Another feature Dotmach offer is - 'Real Time Chat' system in which you can start multiple private chats with any number of users at the same time. This inbuilt chat feature keeps you always connected with your team members even though you are working on different projects.

Dotmach is completely bootstrapped startup product from India developed by team of just 9 members, all like minded youngsters from India and founded by Farooq A Rahim, a technology enthusiast with 6 + years entrepreneurial experience. He became an entrepreneur during his college days itself.

Future plans of Dotmach includes launching iPhone app, Developer API, Audio, Video and Group communication support in coming months and focusing on the product by improving more on its speed and usability.

Google's New Chromecast Device Cast Everything Online to Your TV screen

Google yesterday launched a new device - Chromecast, a small pen-drive like device that you simply plug in to your high-definition (HD) TV and it allows you to use your phone, tablet or laptop to 'cast' online content to your TV screens. Its costs around $35 i.e. aprrox Rs.1800. Chromecast, is an solution to simply plug Chromecast device into any HDTV, connect it to WiFi, then send online content from your smartphone, tablet or laptop to your TV with the press of a button browse online content like video, music, movies or games to your TV screen. It works across platforms like Android, iPhones, iPads, Chrome for Mac and Windows and turn your smartphones to remote. It works with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and Google Play Music, with more apps like Pandora coming soon. In addition to apps like Netflix, you can use Chromecast to bring a broad range of content available on the web to your big screen by using new feature in the Chrome browser that allows you to project any browser tab to your TV. From sharing your family photos to enjoying a video clip from your favorite news site, Google has launched this feature in beta as of now.

Along with the device Google has also launched Google Cast SDK to enable your mobile and web apps to cast content to the TV. Chromecast then streams that content directly from the web. The SDK helps app developers integrate Google Cast technology into apps which makes it easier for app users to enjoy videos, playlists, movies and more on the big screen like TV, without requiring them to download a new application or learn a new interaction model. The new Google Cast SDK developer preview includes the SDKs for Android, iOS and Chrome, which enable developers to extend applications to the TV. The Chromecast has been launched togather with new Nexus 7, a Android smartphone shipped with Android 4.3, the newest version of Android.

Gobol.in to Introduce Refurbished E-Commerce Market in India, Tough for Flipkart

As of now you can buy old or used products at eBay and other auction websites in India and for new ones to you may go to Flipkart or Snapdeal however this is first time that a third kind and a new model of e-commerce market has been introduced in India by a Noida, India based e-commerce based startup Gobol.in which is disrupting the Indian consumer electronics market by creating a new segment by selling refurbished, surplus and factory seconds products with assured warranty in india.

Gobol.in an online e-commerce portal is first of a kind e-comm portal in India that is doing the same with huge discounted product in its inventory.At Gobol.in you can buy a new refurbished product at lesser price value comparing to other best e-commerce portals in India, for example Gobol.in is selling refurbished Samsung galaxy S3 with Samsung warranty at cost of Rs.21500 which is otherwise selling at Rs.27500 on flipkart.

Refurbished item must not be confused with old or 'used' product, reason - 'Refurbished' items are those that have been previously returned to a manufacturer or vendor for various reasons. Refurbished products are normally tested for functionality and defects before they are sold. The main difference between 'refurbished' and 'used' products is that refurbished products have been tested and verified to function properly, and are thus free of defects, while 'used' products may or may not be defective.


Although at Gobol.in you'll see less varieties and much less brands comparing to multi-brand e-commerce shops such as flipkart, Snapdeal or eBay India etc. but the prices are way lesser than any of the portals and of what ever inventory they have, I bet you wont find products at this much price anywhere online in India. You can buy a 24 inch LCD as much low as just Rs.10,000 which is really attractive.

Refurbished e-commerce model is a new model and a new market segment that Gobol.in is trying to create in India with products sold with assured warranty and box pack. Gobol is offering the same services to consumers like any other ace e-commerce portals like - products on EMIs, cash on delivery, free shipping and above all assured warranty and If Gobol can offer fast deliveries like Flipkart I am sure this model will going to give a stiff competition to other multi-brand e-commerce in India especially flipkart's mobile segment and eBay India.

Interestingly The portal is being headed by Mr. Vipul Bathwal, ex-flipkart who introduced mobiles as a category for flipkart at that time. The name Gobol of portal is taken from phrase - GO Big On Life (Gobol).

India's First Portal to pay Tribute and Keep Memories Alive - Shradhanjali.com

A Rajkot, Gujarat based startup has launched a first of its kind web-portal Shradhanjali.com to pay tributes to your loved ones and keep memories alive on web and anyone across the globe will be able to post condolence messages and pay tribute anytime. You can share all the information, history, pictures and videos of your departed loved ones in multiple language options.

Shradhanjali.com, as of now is paid service if you want to create a profile of your loved one who is no more in this world, it can be any one your ancestors, relatives, freedom fighter, famous personality etc. To create a profile one has to pay Rs.2700 as one time fee for creating tributed profile.

The services offered in turn are pretty decent too, you will get - unlimited photos with captions, unlimited videos, a dedicated family details page with names of immediate family members, facility to add and edit information on the profile pages for as many times as required, special mention about the deceased's contribution towards their community and society and lot more.

Some very interesting feature that Shradhanjali.com provides are  SMS and email reminders on birth and death anniversaries to be sent to all relatives listed and choice of music piece on the profile page as background music.

The revenue model of the website being paid tributes to your loved has an added advantage of  no unwanted advertisements or pop-up windows that usually appears on website, so this website totally free of any sort advertisements so far.

As of now the portal as around 140+ profiles in form of tribute people ranging from actors, politicians, freedom fighter and famous personalities. The portal claims that the website in lone ranger in its own market in Indian region and has no competitor so far.

Fake Story: Facebook Facelift among Indian People Rising [Media Overdose]

What had happened to media, why can't able to find a genuine good stories other than publishing marketing gimmicks and overdosing the cheap marketing stuff as 'big news', so far mainstream media like Times of India, Hindustan times was doing well in this arena by overdosing the cheap stories and making them big news & one-liners. Now big reputed blog portal are coming up with such crap as well, recently famous blog - Mashable come up with story -Facebook Facelift Craze Makes for Pricey Profile Pictures and claimed that people in India is ready to spend over lakh for it.

The source of news - well its series of sources coming from one to another, Mashable get it from news portal - Vocativ's video, and when people commented on video that its bull s**t, Vocativ come up with clarification with a reply - " Vocativ was first alerted to the story by a report in the Hindustan Times. Our producer in Delhi reached out to two prominent plastic surgeons to discuss this trend of 'Facebook Facelifts'. Through them, we were able to speak with the two patients — and one prospective patient – who got minor surgery to improve their appearance on social media".



Just "one prospective patient" Vocativ managed to get among more than a billion population of India and they made it a big news Well, vocativ was right, atleast in source of news, in April this year Hindustan Times reported this news  and over the times its spreaded to one source to another, Vocativ, Mahsable and now other news portal are making it look more genuine, clearly it look like it all about generating demand for plastic surgery by propagating the so-called wandering after effects of your face going under the knife,  it's some group of plastic surgeon and big hospitals who wants to market its plastic surgery.

People might go for plastic surgery to look more attractive or to fix their physical imperfections, however saying that people and that's too in developing country like India are dedicatedly going for surgeries just for sake of Facebook profile is clearly a big fake news.

Even in recent times Times of India come in to the bad picture when it published a story and declared a real estate broker the next Mark Zuckerberg of India and then reputed news media - NDTV  got thumbs down for stealing a youtube video that's too 2 years old to add in recent flood video of north India.

You may tell us in comments that how many of you has gone for plastic surgeries just for facebook or your friends or someone you know have undergone with such procedure, just for facebook profile and spending over a lakh of Indian currency for it, though I don't know anyone in my social circle.

FindYogi got Funding of Rs.55L ($100K) From Raju Vanapala of Way2SMS

FindYogi, a Bangalore based web startup that we reviewed some time back today announced that it has raised funding of Rs.55 Lakhs i.e. around $100K from Raju Vanapala, the founder-CEO of Way2SMS. The startup said that the funding will be utilized to strengthen the technology and data team.

FindYogi started in Oct 2012 with the sole vision of making shopping decisions easier for consumers. The startup collects first hand data about standard products and through its proprietary algorithm scores the products based on features. The application also suggests if a given product is rightly priced, as compared to alternatives available in the market. The web application currently helps with purchases for mobiles and tablet computers. New product categories like laptop, camera and other consumer durable will be added over the next few months.

The founders of FindYogi, Naman Sarawagi and Anil Bhat have worked for some well-known Indian and international web and technology companies before taking the entrepreneurial jump. While Naman was part of the initial team at Freecharge, now funded by Sequoia Capital, and ZipDial, Anil was part of the technology team at Novell and Yahoo for over 6 years.

Naman Sarawagi, founder and CEO of FindYogi, said, "With FindYogi we are looking to reduce buyer’s remorse amongst Indian consumers by helping them make better buying decision. A bad purchase decision is not only painful for the consumer but also bad for the industry in the long run. We still have a long way to go in terms of product and reach before we can claim that we have solved the problem successfully."

Commenting on the investment, Naman said, "I believe Raju’s investment brings in more than just money for us. His experience of running one of the most used and highly profitable web applications in India is a great value add as a mentor."

Commenting on the investment, Raju Vanapala said, "The space around shopping assistance and buying decisions is interesting. Given the buzz around e-commerce in India, consumers are coming online for shopping related activity. Though a lot of them may not end up buying online but the decision-making still happens on the web. Given the founder's work at previous startups, I trust FindYogi should make it big in the space."

Truecaller Database Cyber-attacked, Stole Some Data

Truecaller, apparently world's largest collaborative phone directory available as an app for iPhone, Android, Blackberry has been lately attacked by cyber-criminals that resulted in an unauthorized access to some data as per official statement given by truecaller, the access has been shut-down the moment it has been discovered by Truecaller.

Truecaller has presently managed have 18 million users and store more than 950 million phone numbers worldwide, the attackers if got succeeded then pretty good information might have got snatched from Truecaller, although Truecaller does not store passwords, credit card information, or any other sensitive information about our users.

Rumours have been there that attackers were able to access Truecaller user’s Facebook, Twitter and other social media passwords, however Truecaller denied the same, that attackers were able get some data but not any sort of sensitive information. Hackers represents Syrian Electronic Army, the attackers via their  twitter handle claimed to have recovered 459 GiBs of database, primarily due to an older version of Wordpress installation on the servers. The TrueCaller official however denied all this.

On the other hand attacker via their Twitter managed to reveal database, username and password of db through which they were able sneak into database of TrueCaller, ironically the password revealed by attackers is - google123, which is ultra simple to hack and shows  how Truecaller officials have taken technicalities for granted.

Trueacaller apart from being  an international phone directory of sorts that covers both fixed-line and mobile phones it also instantly allows to see who the caller is, blocks unwanted calls and more. After the attack the app company should now get more responsible considering the amount of users and phone number it has managed to gather till now.

Indian Startups and Merger & Acquisition Report [Infographic]

Lately, iSpirt along with Zinnov analysis released India Technology and M&A review report where they collaboratively analysed key trends in Indian tech-startups arena, merger & acquisition activities, fundings in India. India has shown a pretty good growth in terms of total startup ecosystem boost with rising funding activities and  even more increasing funding bodies like VCs, incubators, angel network, below are few main trends startup, M&A and funding areas:

 

Startups

• India Startup ecosystem has shown 30 times growth in Merger & Acquisition deals since 2009.


• India's M&A deals sum up to an average of US$37 million.


• Number of startups in India growing at CAGR rate of ~15% with 1326 startups in 2012.


• India is ahead of Germany, Israel, China and Japan in number of startups in 2012.


• More than 250 startups funded in year 2012 alone.


• Bangalore accounts for most no. of startups (27%) followed by Delhi/NCR, Mumbai and Hyderabad region with 24%, 22% and 13% respectively.

 

Merger & Acquisitions

• India has witnessed slight growth in merger & acquisition in last 3 years with 56 M&A deals in 2012 comparing to 44 deals in 2009.


• Software and Internet account for 38% of all M&A deals in India.


• 49% of all technology M&A deals in India during 2012-13 focussed on CLAMS (Cloud, Analytics, Mobility and Social).


• Mumbai tops the cities in India with most tech M&A deals in India, followed by Bangalore, Delhi/NCR region


• Indian IT service industry giants like Wipro are now exploring M&A route to enter new services.

 

Funding Bodies and Fundings in India

• VCs fundings in India has doubled between 2009 and 2011.


• A total of around US$1.1billion of VCs fundings made in 2009-2011 period.


• Early age startup funding in India has reached to $US 25 million, annually in year 2012.


• The no. of technology incubators & accelerators in India increased to more than 120, better than what existed 5 years back which were handful only.


• Number of Angel network in India increased to more than 20.

Below you can find an infographic depicting the key trends and activities in Startups, M&A and fundings in India and varied sectors of it. Share your views in comments about how much you were aware of these amazing figures start arena in India is showing.

India's Zoik-It Team Wins at Microsoft Imagine Cup

An Indian team called Y-Nots won the first prize for the Windows Azure Challenge Prize and another one of Mail.ru connected planet award at the Microsoft Imagine cup 2013 finals held at St Petersburg, Russia.

Zoik.it, a windows app developed by Y-Nots team wont the first prize, the app help you connect with real people at a real physical location easy and fast, imagine a scenario when you are at an airport waiting for flight that has been delayed for an hour or so, now you could see nearby people at the airport on your phone and pick people whom you want to talk to? and send message like – "Anyone bored around and interested in #coffee?" and people then if wish could join you for a hangout. So with help of this app you could discover and connect to local people, make new friends and expand you network.



In Imagine Cup, the second and third place winner apps are - onQuests and Get & Put, from Ukraine and China respectively. OnQuest is a social platform that enables it users to take part in exciting quests, create own tasks and share them with friends. While Get & Put let users to grab pictures, music, or drawings from the screen, carry them by hand, and put them into other devices without carrying any equipment.

The team Y-Nots consist of three members - Abdul Rahman, Nawaz Dhandala from Hyderabad, India and Anshal Anand from Bengaluru, they all runs GUID Softwares an internet/mobile startup based in India , the startup GUID was founded in 2012 with a vision to build ground breaking and kick-ass software that runs on phone, tablets, desktops and even in the cloud.

With Ziok It! app, the startup wants to help people connect to right people at the right place and at the right time, when they need them. "Our Algorithm ensures that you meet "stunning" people and you're safe with them. After all, in the end - You're meeting a complete stranger" - said Anshal Anand of the team.

"Our technology might help convert, Introverts to extroverts - People who text, can now talk to people around them." said Abdul Rahmaan of Y-Nots team.

Microsoft Imagine Cup is world’s premier student technology competition that invite all eligible students to use their imagination and passion to create a technology solution in one of our competitions and challenges.From last ten years, more than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries have participated in the Imagine Cup.

A $99 Gaming Console that Runs on Android OS

Gaming Consoles like Sony PS3, XBox, Nintendo cost no less than $250 (Rs.15,000 INR) reason being they run on proprietary based platforms, however now you can have Gaming console at just $99 (Rs.5800 apprx.) that runs on Google's Android OS and its more than just a gaming console, OUYA is an open, free-to-play game console that upend the console market by putting the power back in the hands of developers and gamers, it is custom-designed with a beautiful wireless-controller.

OUYA is a new 2.95-inch gaming console designed to use a TV as the display via a HDMI connection and powered by Android OS with over 200 games on it, all free.  Games are available via digital distribution, or can be side-loaded.It ships with a single wireless controller, but it can also support multiple controllers.

And as we said its more than gaming console, why?, because recently YouTube's VEVO has agreed to put their music videos on OUYA, XBMC adds a streaming media app and TuneIn and iHeartRadio added its music services to Ouya as well. Recently OnLive! added game streaming to OUYA through its services, OnLive is service that delivers graphics-rich interactive applications via cloud for gaming & streaming. So all-in-all you getting Gaming Console + Music devices + Videos playback device and more at just cost of $99.

On June 25, 2013 OUYA released it gaming consoles for public and for sale in retail market, the gaming console is actually a KickStarter backed project which managed to collect around record $8.5 million of money which is record in history of KickStarter.

As a future plan, Ouya is set to launch an exclusive Ouya store for applications and games designed specifically for the Ouya platform.Developers have access to OUYA's open design so they can develop games and launch for gamers.

You can buy the OUYA gaming console with one wireless-controller at price of $99 at OUYA Shop or from Amazon also for one extra wireless-controller you have to pay $49.99 extra.

OUYA Specifications

Operating system	Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
System-on-chipused	Nvidia Tegra 3 (T33) SoC
CPU	1.7 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9
Storage capacity	8 GB internal flash memory
Memory	1 GiB DDR3 SDRAM
Display	HDMI 1080p, 720p
Graphics	Nvidia ULP GeForce
Input	USB 2.0 (one) Micro USB (for connection to PC)
Controller input	Wireless controller
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth LE 4.0 Ethernet port
Dimensions	75 mm (2.95 inch) cube

How to Register a Company/Startup in India

Registering a startup or a new business in India first and foremost one has to go by, there are some official procedures a startup or a company has to follow in order to register them in Indian official records, MCA (ministry of Corporate Affairs) has to made registration process online few years back, please find below on how to go about these process when you want to register your company.

One don’t need to visit corporate office, you can apply for registration just sitting at home. We will help you to get a legal license for your business. The registration includes some must follow rules and some registration like Digital Signature Certificate(DSC), Director Identity Number(DIN) and filing for an e-form.

These are four major steps:

• Acquiring Digital Signature Certificate(DSC)
• Acquiring Director Identification Number(DIN)
• Filing an eForm or New user registration
• Incorporate the company
  

It’s necessary to get registered yourself to run your business without any legal problem. India is a land of opportunity, no matter in which field your business is operating the chances of getting success is very high, so it just needs a start. starting an entrepreneurship in India would fetch you great success. fallow this post sincerely till you incorporate your final claim for your company. We assure one will end up in getting their business registered after following this procedure.

 

Know the basics first: What is mean by company, the private company and public company?

In India, there are about 7+ lackhs registered companies and every month thousands of firms apply for registration. company is a legal entity; According to Section 3 of companies act company means a legal entity formed and registered under Companies Act 1956. Under the ministry of corporate affairs, every company is to be registered by the registrar of companies for the state. This act maintains two types of companies called private and public companies. The ‘Limited’ is the most commonly used corporate form at the end of the company name. First you need to know what are these public and private companies and decide how you want your company to get registered.

When it comes to company registration, Every firm will have following two options:

1. Private company:
2. Public company:

The main differences between Private and Public companies are:

• Minimum number of Board members required for a private company is two and for a public company is seven.
• Private company can have maximum of only 50 members, but a  public company can have any number of members.
• A private company can start its business as soon as it is incorporated but the public company shouldn’t start its business until it receives business commencement certificate.
• Private company shouldn’t sell it’s shares to anyone or shouldn’t make any invitation to people regarding a company shares, but a public company can invite people to buy it’s shares by issuing a prospectus.
• Private company may have two directors, but a public company must have at least three directors.

Lets start the registration procedure: 4 Steps

Step 1: Acquire Director Identification Number(DIN)

This is the first process in registration that each director of the company should obtain their identification number. As per the amendment act 2006, acquiring a DIN  is compulsory for every director i.e. as such every existing and intending directors have to obtain their DIN. To get DIN one need to file a eForm DIN-1. The DIN-1 form is available on Official site of the ministry of corporate affairs the link is DIN-1 Form.

 

• Register yourself on MCA Website first and have a login id. After filling DIN-1 Form, one should upload the filled form by clicking to eForm upload button on MCA website and should pay applicable fees.
• After getting generated DIN one should intimate their company about DIN. The director can intimate their company about DIN  by using DIN-2 Form.
• Then company should intimate the Registrar of Corporates(ROC) about all director’s DIN through DIN-3 Form.
• If there is any change in DIN or need for any updation  like change of address, personal details etc, then director should intimate this change by submitting the eForm DIN-4 Form.
  

Step 2: Acquire Digital Signature Certificate(DSC):

In order to ensure the security or authenticity of documents filed electronically the information act 200o demands a valid digital signature on the documents submitted electronically. This is the only and safest way that one can submit their documents electronically. The digital signature certificate should be acquired by only those agencies which are appointed by the controller of certification agencies (CCA). One should not use DSC given by any other agency which is not approved and it’s illegal to use others DSC as yours or the false one.

If you already have a digital signature then you can use the same, no need to apply for another. But do check for your digital signature validity, agencies issue DSC’s with one or two year validity after expiry you have to renew it.

One can acquire his/her Digital Signature certificates  from these government listed agencies like TCS, IDBRT, MTNL, SAFESCRYPT, NIC, nCODE Solutions etc. to check out their price details of these Govt approved agencies, Go to this link.

Step 3: Create a account on MCA Portal – New user registration

This is about having a registered user account on MCA Portal for filing a eForm, for online fee payment, for different transactions as registered and business user. Creating an account is totally free of cost. To register yourself on the MCA portal, click on the register link.

Step 4: Apply for the company to be registered.

This is the final major step in a registration of your company which includes incorporating company name, Registering the office address or notice of situation of office and notice for appointment of company directors, manager and secretary. And also regarding the take and pay for their qualification shares.

• Form-1:
  • Form-1A: Application form for availability or change of a company name. Once you apply for new company name, the MCA will suggest four different form of your company name; you have to choose one among them. To do the same you have you have to fill Form-1A and submit.
  • Form-1: This is for application or declaration for incorporation of a company, in this form you have to fill the same name which you have chosen during application of form-1A.

• Form-18:
  • This form is for notice of the situation of a new company office or change of situation of previously registered office.
  • For a new company you have to fill the form with genuine office address and submit.

• Form-32:
  • For a new company, this form is for notice for appointment of new Directors, Managers and Secretary.
  • For an existing company, this form is for a change of directors, Manger, Secretary or company head.

After submitting these forms, once the application has been approved by MCA, you will receive a confirmation email regarding the application for incorporation of a new company, and the status of the form will get changed to Approved.

Detailed procedure for approval of the proposed company name:

For obtaining name for your new company, An application in Form-1A needs to be filed with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) of the state in which the Registered Office of the proposed Company is to be situated to ascertain the availability of a name along with an official service fee of Rs.500/-.

You have to provide four alternative names for the proposed company. Your company name shall not resemble the name of any other company already registered or violate the provisions according to Act, 1950.

In this form you have to fill name and addresses of directors (minimum 2 for a private company and 7 for a public company). You have to mention main objects of the company and authorized capital.

In about 10 days, the ROC will inform you about approval or objections. If there are any objections then ROC will suggest you with some available names and let you choose among them. If your company name is approved then you will receive a formal letter regarding the confirmation of the same. Keep the same which will be required during registration process of the proposed company.

If you find any difficulty or encounter any problem while obtaining the company name then do contact us, We will help you to sort out your problem.

Check these documents before submission of a company:

1. DIN of all those directors of a proposed company.
2. DSC – Digital Signature Certificate
3. Original copy the of formal letter issued by ROC regarding availability of Company name.
4. Form-1 for incorporation of a company.
5. Form-18 for situation or address of the proposed company.
6. Form-32 for particulars of proposed directors, managers and secretary.

Formalities to be followed while incorporation of a company:

1. Obtain a TAN card
2. Obtain a Permanent account number (PAN) from income tax dept. India
3. If required: Documents obeying shop and establishment acts.
4. If required: For foreign trade, Registration documents of import export code from Director General of foreign trade.
5. If required: Registration documents of Software technologies Parks of India (STPI).
6. If required: RBI approval for foreign companies investing in India and FIPB approval.
7. Both Indian and foreign directors need to have valid Digital Signature Certificates from authorized agencies.

 This article has been reblogged from Feedose.com article written by Sashikanth Hogtapur.

Govt. to Curb on Porn Over Android Based Devices

Indian government after blocking certain obscene & porn websites in India is now planning to curb on reported porn and adult content available on Android OS as applications.  India's telecommunication minister Kapil Sibbal has asked media group to assist government and tell government on how to deal with adult content spreading over Google's Android platform.

Android is an open platform from Google that's freely available to app developers, where they can develop apps and distribute it across the world . However, Google have developer program policy that does not allow content that contains nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material.

Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child pornography, and as per policy if Google found any such material it will report it to the appropriate authorities and delete the Google Accounts of those involved with the distribution.

Practically, there might be an application available on Android that can be labelled as mild-adult content however there isn't any application which have fully nude sexually explicit content in it, there are apps though that refer to other adult sources for example an app that only refers to videos available on other sources and doesn't stream adult content from itself.

This is the reason that other android store dedicatedly for porn content came into existence such as MiKandi, which provide only adult and sexually explicit android apps unlike to 'Google Play' store which allow only mild adult content and condemn fully sexually explicit content right away.

On second thought, banning content that's too over ever-expanding and vast internet is not a solution but change of mindset is, but again adult content over mobile devices make children vulnerable to  adult content which is not good, for that there are solutions like blocking adult content on mobile devices for that go to Google Play store and install Kaspersky parental control and you can control what your children see on mobile.

30+ Online Health & Wellness Related Portals in India

Below more than 30 various online health tools, portals and websites in varied categories such as online magazines, doctors' search, online consultation, parenting & baby care, e-commerce portal of health related products and even social or professional networking portals for doctors and healthcare professionals.

Doctor's Appointment & Search

Practo.com - Online doctors appointment service that cover the most regions of India in fact highest number of cities & towns i.e. 58 cities and other similar online services in India are not even close to it.

DocSuggest - A doctor search online service for Bangalore, Delhi/NCR, Hyderabad and Mumbai. DocSuggest also has Android app for mobiles to book appointment via mobile.

NamasteDoc - A free doctor search and fix appointment, you can search doctors by name, by hospital or by specialty, at moment the service is available in Delhi/NCR area, Mumbai and Jaipur.

Medecure.com - Online appointment service for mainly Maharashtra state i.e. - Mumbai, Pune and Ahmednagar regions only. The portal also has ask an expert service within portal for free.

Helpingdoc.com - Online Doctors appointment online service 24/7 for Delhi/NCR area only. The service claims to cut the long waits at doctors place by providing real-time confirmation, pre-filled information and helps patients see doctor soon.

MeetMyDoctor.in - Online appointment service for Bangalore only and patient will get booking SMS/Email notifications and reminders as well.

Doctorsbooking.com - Another online service to search doctors and make instant appointments for Bangalore only.

Online Health Magazines -

Arogya - A complete health portal which is not less than A-list health portals in India where you can find anything about health, wellness, diseases, health calculators and can  ask doctors online,  do drug search and more.

BoloHealth.com - This one is full-fledge health content portal covering articles, videos, news, blogs and ask queries on health, fitness, conditions and health ezines.

OnlyMyHealth - This is also  full-fledge health content portal covering interesting articles on health, wellness & fitness.  The site can also be read in Hindi version and have tools like doctors & hospital search

mDhil.com - A content based portal covering articles and videos on birth control, fitness and cardiac health other than English the portal has content in 5 Indian regional languages - Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

HealthMeUp - A product by Times internet and blog layout based content portal covering articles, videos and recipes on health, fitness, diet and body weight.

Online Doctor Consultation -

PinkWhale - PinkWhale Healthcare Services is an e-Health company offering integrated online and telephone based personal healthcare services. This portal also caters its users to consult and ask query to doctors online though the portal is for global audience not just India.

Mediangels.com - This Mumbai, India based portal was launched 1.5 years back and is claimed to be  world’s first specialized Global eHospital where people can have access to doctors across the globe without the need of travelling and have over 350 Doctors on the board from 93 super specialties hospitals not just from India but worldwide (across 15 countries) such as - Howard, Stanford and John Hopkins, patients can avail medical opinions within 72 hours of uploading of medical history on the site.

Payment for services taken can be made through credit cards via the net and can vary between 250 rupees to 5000 rupees. As per the founder of portal even the best hospitals have 40 to 50 specialties, but at www.mediangels.com, they have doctors from more than 85 medical super-specialties on board.

DoctorVista - A portal where you can consult Doc online, ask query and even do videos chat with specialists doctors or online physicians and discuss your medical conditions online & live with licensed doctors, though some of these services are paid and one has to prepay after signing-up with portal.

HealthCareMagic.com - This is one of the complete online doctors consultation portal with 7500+ doctors network with variety of communication tools such as - Website, Android App, GMail/AIM chat bot and iPhone/iPad. One can add - askdoctor@answers.healthcaremagic.com to GTalk / AIM buddy list & ask doctors online & get alerts for solutions.

TopDoctorsOnline.com - It's a Doctors consultation portal plus complete health digest that includes articles, videos, health tools, medical directory as well as health shop where you can buy medicines, supplements and equipment.

DialurDoctor.com - This is purely doctor-on-call service under the domain of eHeathAccess.com which caters health and wellness needs for individual consumers, their families , employees of an organization and their families. One has to pay/register and can get consultation from a doctors at cost Rs.999 for whole family, Rs499 for single person, 99 for one time consultation and Rs150 for video consultation and other more subscription plans as well. You may also get free advice in discussion forum.

Healthizen - As the portal says its  a gateway to health & wellness, the portal divides into three - Healthcare Shopping, Healthcare Information, Healthcare Tools.

MyNutrition.in - This is online e-com portal that offer a single window solution to all fitness, nutritional, and wellness product to Indian consumers right from sports nutrition, vitamin & mineral supplements, organ supportive medicine, fat burners, herbal supplements and sports & fitness supplements organized neatly by categories, frankly I haven't seen such wide variety of supplement and medicine store online.

In addition, for people who are vegetarians and live in geographical location where there are not much choices for plant-based foods, there is risk of not sustaining a healthy body-mass index and thus losing to healthy weight. However, with more vegan-based weight gainers it is now possible to gain weight on a plant-based diet, suggests an interesting advice by Vegan Liftz, where it explains how to sustain healthy weight when one's life choices and metabolism seem to be conspiring against him/her.

Parenting & Baby Healthcare -

BabyCenter - The portal as claimed is no.1 pregnancy and parenting web and mobile destination worldwide  in 14 different location including India. It majorly provides very insightful articles, information, videos and tools for pregnancy and parenting. For pregnancy  and health of pregnant mother and if you want to know how your baby's growing, how mother's life is changing, pregnancy tips it's one of the best place online.

ParenTree -Parentree.in portal focuses on the practical aspects of Indian parenting, you can read articles, join groups and discussions write blogs etc. make other parents as you buddies, get or give reviews of schools and pre-schools, local activities in Indian cities, children's intelligence, reliable classes for arts and sports, growth charts, good nutrition, parenting tips, pregnancy, babies and children, child development, growth milestones, emotional development and behaviour.

IndiaParenting - The one stop shop online for all things parenting and baby care right from useful articles, information for 60 channels/categories and interactive tools such as - Ovulation Calculator, Due Date Calculator, Baby Name Finder, Kids Weight Calculator and many more. The site also have communities with discussion board to discuss all about parenting. 

E-Commerce -

DialHealth - The portal is shopping based health site where you buy health related stuffs online, one of the fantastic feature is that you don't have to find drugs/medicine you want , from pages by pages looking around, you can search drugs by just typing name and you'll get all varieties under same drug name.

The portal also offers you to find doctors, hospitals and provide cash on delivery feature if you buy health products online from it, the portal indeed have wide products from general, baby, beauty products, sports & fitness, ayurveda etc.

HealthKart - This portal is also provide same features of online health products purchasing and provide cash-on-delivery as well, searching drugs by name as you type. However it takes less shipping time and unlike to other health e-comm portals provide an extra category 'Home & Living'  where you can buy home appliances other than just drugs & supplements. The portal is among largest inventory in India as far as e-commerce based health portal is concerned.

Other Similar E-Commerce based health portals -

• GoodLife - A FirstCry.com umbrella portal.


• DietKart


• Healthadda


• Healthgenie

Doctors' Social Network -

Docpeers.com - It's a social & professional networking portal only for and by healthcare individuals (doctors, medical students, healthcare staff etc.) & organizations (hospitals, clinics, service providers etc.) as well. Healthcare professionals can connect with healthcare/medical experts & organizations around the globe, get mentored or mentor other medical professionals, view or subscribe to medical trainings, workshops, events, view & collaborate on various healthcare documents, find medical jobs around the globe, videos and more.

HealthRadii.com - This is a blog magazine for healthcare thought leaders and thinkers with simple features such as discussions, blogs post, videos etc.

DoctorsHangOut - A professional networking portal for doctors & medical students worldwide with features such as groups, forums, events, chats and finding  healthcare related jobs. and making friends ofcourse.

Indian Startups to get Benefits from Nasscom and iSpirt Race

The Indian startup ecosystem is has grown more than double folds in last 5 years and so are different associations' effort to offer platform to startups in India in order to nurture them and help them to get investments from Indian investors and from across the globe as well. The race has grew so much that different bodies, associations are in race with each other.

NASSCOM and iSpirt (Indian Software Product Industry Round Table) are helping Indian startups in various areas, while iSpirt is envisaging an action plan for increasing merger and acquisition opportunities for Indian product startups NASSCOM on other hand has already started 10,000 startup initiative to incubate, fund and support 10,000 technology startups in India over the next 10 years.

In number of total number of startups in year 2012, India showed CAGR growth of 15% with around 1,326 total startup which is ahead of China, Israel, Germany and Japan which shows tremendous growth in Indian startups ecosystem and made a mark as one of key centre in technology innnovation of world.



 

Nasscom, as per its 10,000 startups initiative has met top VCs and startup accelerators in silicon valley, US to help 15 startups to be identified as candidate for future investment right from silicon valley. This initiative from NASSCOM is already helping startups in India and brand India as emergin destination for startups.

Meanwhile, iSpirt team met with the CEOs of about 20 Indian startups, with mostly who have some presence in Silicon Valley to gain better access to their markets and customers. iSpirt has also in process of identifying several issues that need to be addressed to improve merger and acquisition activity in the US-India corridor.

This constant touch of iSpirt team with silicon valley will further wants to provide 40 startups in India to get funded in the next three years.The iSPIRT team also had a private meeting with the head of M&A at Oracle.

Apart from silicon valley, NASSCOM on other hand also wants to spread startup-boosting hubs in India itself such as incubators and accelerators and thus in process launch start-up warehouses, incubators with in-house mentors and infrastructure, in Indian states like - Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and the Delhi/NCR area.

Recently,  NASSCOM with Zinnov collaboration launched ProductsMade.in - a database or directory of Indian technology companies has been launched today by . In this directory, apart from searching Indian tech-companies one can add, edit about Indian companies, startups and technology products or service based firms in India only.

All the while, Indian tech startups are indeed getting benefits from healthy competition between Nasscom & iSpirt, two association which moves around technology companies and startups in India. More startups are getting investment opportunities in their ideas and platform to get nurtured in terms of mentorship, infrastructure and aids in boosting and bringing out technological advancements in their future plans.

15 Must Have PHP Tools for Coders

PHP is one of the most widely spread server-side scripting languages. 244 million websites, 20 million indexed domains and 2.1 million web servers – the statistics as of July 2013 are quite impressive. It's no wonder that major websites like Facebook and WordPress prefer it over other side-scripting languages, including Python and Ruby. There are numerous PHP frameworks, and web content management systems written in PHP include such popular names as Joomla, MediaWiki, Drupal, Moodle and many others. The above mentioned figures suggest hundreds of thousands of active PHP developers worldwide.

There are many reasons why PHP is so popular – it is fast, has thorough documentation, is supported by a large enthusiastic community and last but not least it has free and open source libraries, which bring down the cost of web development.

In order to make the PHP coding process smoother, developers have come up with various coding solutions. Some even say that it is impossible to become an effective PHP developer without additional scripts. Let's have a look at some of the tools designed specifically to make your code writing experience easier:

Debugging Tools

• Xdebug is a very popular debugging extension, which quickly finds bugs in your source code.
  Webgrind is a PHP5 cross-platform tool that is designed for a “quick 'n' dirty” fix, as the developers write on the official page.


• PHP_Dyn is your choice if you are looking for open source software. This useful extension might come in handy if you were not satisfied with other PHP scripts.

Security Tools:

• Scavenger is designed for real-time management of vulnerabilities. This tool uses open-source technologies and it may interest system administrators because it helps them track and respond  to vulnerability findings.


• Securimage will interest you if you want to protect your website from spammers. This script generates CAPTCHA codes and complex images.

Optimization and Testing Tools:

• SimpleTest is a framework that is designed to help you test how your code will run on a webpage. It has support for SSL, frames, forms, proxies and has basic authentication.


• PHP_CodeSniffer is a must have tool if you are trying to solve the problem of uniform coding styles for large teams and projects. This script detects conformance to predefined PHP standards.


• PHPUnit helps you test how stable and scalable your web application is. It works with the latest version of PHP and is really helpful for testing.

Image and Graphs Management Tools:

• pChart is a free library to draw charts for PHP. It works both with SQL and CSV formats.


• MagickWand For PHP is your choice if you want to quickly add image-editing options to your PHP applications.


• PHP/SWF Charts is powerful for creating web charts and graphs. It uses dynamic data.

Useful Extensions:

• SimplePie is an easy-to-use feed parser that helps you work with RSS feeds.


• TCPDF will be useful for you if you want to generate PDF documents.


• PHPMathPublisher allows you to publish mathematical documents online without the need to install LaTeX or MathML to the server.


• Phormer is a handy application that manages your photo gallery and lets you store, categorize and trim your photos right from the browser.

 

Guest Post:
The above guest post has been contributed by Rob Greenberg - His work is related to copyright management and to cooperate with those companies who develop plagiarism software such as www.plagiarismdetect.com and others.Rob also writes for the company’s blog and also takes part in testing plagiarism checking software.

Apple iPhone have its Rival Samsung's Brain Chips

Apple's iPads and iPhones are finding it hard to get brain of its own, unlike to Samsung devices which have its own processors and memory chips, Apple's devices use other brands memory chips and processors and even screens for iPad are not of Apple's own production.

Earlier Apple used to import screens for both iPhone & iPad from Samsung, however now the company no longer buys iPhone screens from Samsung after series of suing and counter-suing each other and rivalry grew to next level, prominently after recent Apple's complaint against Samsung in April this year where the former sues the later for various infringements including Patent and trademark Infringement and copying shape & design that Samsung has given to its much famous Galaxy phones and tablets.

As per WSJ Article - Apple no longer buys iPhone screens from Samsung and has reduced iPad-screen purchases. And Apple has been buying more flash-memory chips an essential part for storing data from other makers, say former Apple executives and officials at another chip supplier.



Still even today Apple is one of Samsung's biggest customers for processors and memory chips, that is around $10 billion out of $59.13 billion total sales of Samsung last year, so even Samsung cannot call off this partnership, as Apple is representing a big part of Samsung chips sales, so it cannot afford to lose client like Apple.

Apple will probably keep buying chips from Samsung for at least a year. Notably, Samsung on other hand is world's biggest manufacturer processors, memory and high-resolution screens and Apple have no choice to but to critically depends on Samsung for making its devices complete.

Apple has recently signed a deal and also invested in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to start buying chips from TSMC, reason for this investment is to have TSMC set a dedicated factory space to manufacture chips for Apple only.

Apple's partnership with TSMC to produce new generations of its AX line of ARM-based chips has long been understood to be at the core of the iPhone maker's plan to shift its component sourcing away from Samsung.

Despite the TSMC deal, Samsung will remain the primary supplier until next year and from next year onwards TSMC plans to start mass-producing the chips using advanced '20-nanometer' technology, which makes the chips potentially smaller and more energy-efficient.

An interesting story in this rivalry is that other companies gaining profit in it, like - in 2010 when iPhone 4 was launched Apple helped Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Corp. to expand their factories to stop purchasing screens from Samsung and rely more on other screen suppliers like Sharp & Toshiba. However, Samsung bought 3% stake in Sharp to become fifth-largest shareholder in Sharp Corp. and prevented Apple from gaining more bargaining power with Sharp.

Image credits -
www.cultofmac.com/104770/apple-shuns-samsung-to-begin-testing-a6-chip-with-tsmc-report/
www.wsj.com

Robosoft Got USD$372K Investment from Kalaari Capital (IndoUS Venture)

Udupi based mobile apps and games developments company Robosoft Technologies has raised Rs 22 Crore i.e. apprx. USD$ 372K  in a first round of funding from Kalaari Capital formerly IndoUS Ventures.

Robosoft focuses on creating mobile applications, or apps as they are popularly known as, for clients. It also creates its own apps through 99Games and Global Delight.

View press release below:

Press Release

UDUPI, India, July 1, 2013

Robosoft, a leading developer of mobile apps and games, today announced that the company has received funding from Kalaari Capital (formerly IndoUS Venture Partners) to accelerate growth and fund expansion. The new investment validates Robosoft's rise as one of the premier mobile application developers. It also boosts the company’s vision to be the Partner of Choice to implement and enhance mobile experiences to leading brands and enterprises the world over.

Robosoft builds delightful mobile experiences and engaging applications for the iOS, Android, and Windows platforms. The business had traditionally focused on the US market but is now gaining traction in Europe, Middle East, and India too.

"Robosoft has established some great partnerships in the last few years in the mobile space. We've achieved this with our focus on customer delight, engineering excellence, and investment in our people," said Rohith Bhat, Founder and CEO, Robosoft. "The new investment from Kalaari will help us turbocharge our growth in new markets and industry segments, add new sales, design, engineering talent to our team, and help us move toward a full-service model.

Traditionally known for it’s engineering capabilities, Robosoft started specializing on mobile a few years ago, and has since then helped numerous clients successfully develop and refine their mobile experiences. In this process, Robosoft has developed 1000+ applications, with a cumulative download of 100M+ apps. Over a hundred of these applications have been predominantly featured on the US app store under the 'New & Noteworthy' section. Several of these have won international acclaim including BAFTA, MacWorld Best of Show, DEMO, App Store Best of 2012 and Apple Design Award.

Commenting on the investment, Kumar Shiralagi, MD at Kaalari Capital said, "Robosoft's wealth of engineering talent, their successful track record of building consumer facing products for some of the best brands in the world and their leadership position in the mobile services segment got us interested. Equally enticing were their initiatives in building global IP like ‘WordsWorth’, ‘Camera Plus Pro’, ‘Game your Video’, ‘Boom’, and the amount of traction they already had there. Their clear vision for the future got us interested and we are confident about their ability to execute on that potential."

When Apple announced App Store in 2007, Robosoft was one of the first off the blocks to build apps that went live on Day 1. The success and traction that Robosoft saw in this space convinced it to launch its own fully-owned App subsidiary called Global Delight and also launch its fully-owned gaming subsidiary called 99Games Online. While initially financed by Robosoft's services business, these subsidiaries have gained significant traction over the years. Part of the current funding would go into marketing some path-breaking apps and games from these subsidiaries over the next 12 months.

About Robosoft:

Robosoft is a multiple awards winning developer of mobile apps and games, committed to crafting innovative products around emotions that compare with the best from across the world. With over 400 people, 100 Million+ App Downloads, 1000+ Apps produced and a portfolio spanning 16 Years of Work in the digital and technology domain, Robosoft has the depth of experience to build the next great product and the scale to simultaneously handle multiple assignments. www.robosoftin.com

About Kalaari Capital:

Kalaari Capital Advisors, formerly known as Indo US Venture Partners, is an India focused venture capital fund that recently raised $150M. The Kalaari team brings decades of experience as entrepreneurs, investors and executives to add value to emerging companies. Team members at Kalaari Capital have advised investments in more than 35 companies since 2006. www.kalaari.com

Source: Robosoft Technologies Pvt. Ltd