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WhatsApp launches desktop messaging option

Messaging platform WhatsApp has announced that users can now send messages from their desktop web browsers.

However, in a blog post announcing the feature, the company says that messages will still live on users’ phones.

WhatsApp launches desktop messaging option

The desktop messaging option is also not available to users who access the app on Apple devices.

“We will not be able to provide [the] web client… due to Apple platform limitations,” it wrote.

Last February, Facebook paid nearly $19bn (£12.6bn) to buy WhatsApp, which recently reported that it had around 700m mobile users. The acquisition was completed in October.

WhatsApp is one of the world’s largest messaging platforms, but concerns have been raised about how it plans to increase its user base in addition to how it will make money.

Currently, the company charges a $0.99 (65p) annual fee to users who sign up to the service after their first 12 months of using it.

However, a filing with US regulators in October by Facebook revealed that the app brought in only $15m in revenue in the third quarter – and lost nearly $230m in the first half of 2014.

Oops! Salman Khan Thinks Anushka Sharma’s Boyfriend Virat Kohli Is Too Metrosexual

Bollywood’s superstar Salman Khan is no stranger to constant comparisons with fellow actors. But what surprised the actor was a comparison with Indian cricketer Virat Kohli because of their similar moody nature to which the actor gave a response by calling Virat Kohli ‘too metrosexual’.

Oops! Salman Khan Thinks Anushka Sharma’s Boyfriend Virat Kohli Is Too Metrosexual

Salman Khan was recently in Dubai for the launch of a jewellery store. During a press conference when discussions were on about the ongoing World Cup matches, a question was popped comparing Salman Khan with Virat Kohli for their good looks and moody behaviourial changes. To which the Kick actor said, “I don’t think I am like Virat Kohli.

He is too metrosexual. I am not.” Referring to Anushka Sharma’s boyfriend Virat as a guy who is too concerned about the way he looks and loves to shop, Salman Khanplayfully drifted from the topic and started talking about his personal life goals. For the Being Human founder, marriage is not as important as his wish to have kids.

Salman is definitely the most eligible bachelor in India and whenever asked about the topic of marriage, the actor always gives witty responses.

This time the actor went ahead to express his expectations in future; “I always get so close to a wedding. God has been very kind. You can ask most married men and they will tell you what I mean. But one day my luck will run out. I hope it runs out soon. But more than marriage, having children is on my list. If I can figure out how to have those without marriage,” Salman Khan stated.

Well we surely wish to see any of that happen soon! Salman Khan is currently shooting in Gujarat for his upcoming film Prem Ratan Dhan Payo starring Sonam Kapoor.

Google Unveils Self-Driving Car Prototype

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — Google has been building self-driving cars for years, but what we’ve seen so far has always been retrofits of existing cars — until now. The search giant unveiled on Tuesday a fully autonomous self-driving car, built from the ground up by Google and its partners.

Google Unveils Self-Driving Car Prototype

Company co-founder Sergey Brin revealed his plans at Recode’s Code Conference in southern California. He told Recode editors Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher (who has ridden in the car), that there’s a safety benefit in a custom-built self-driving car. Because the car doesn’t have a steering wheel, accelerator or brakes, it has more sensors in strategic spots than is possible in a regular vehicle. It is also equipped with a big “stop” button. In addition to all this tech, Google’s autonomous car includes internal power steering and power brakes. Read More>>

How to talk to a CEO

Mark Stelzner
Founder/Principal, IA HR

My first meeting with the CEO of a Fortune 1000 firm was a complete disaster. It was fifteen years ago and despite the cool breeze that was blowing outside, I was sweating bullets. This guy was a titan of industry so my mind jumped frantically between the thrill of the opportunity and the terror of screwing it up.

Entering his office with a huge smile, I instantly vomited verbal nonsense with, “It must be a great honor for you to meet me sir! I can only imagine how excited you are!” Ugh.. I couldn’t believe what I had said and my smile grew increasingly awkward. Excited to meet me?? It sounded like I was being a sarcastic a-hole. With a furrowed brow, he peeled his fingers away from my death grip, sighed heavily and looked at his watch.

Why Google isn’t growing

Google CEO Larry Page can be forgiven for being in a bad mood this weekend. On his company’s Q1 2014 earnings call, his people delivered what he thought would be good news: revenues of $15.4 billion, up 19%. Very, very few business can deliver 20% growth on billions in revenues. By any measure, Google is on fire as a company.

Yet investors hated it.

They sold the stock, and it declined 5% immediately after the call. In 24 hours the price had lost $9, from $544 per share to $536.

Google is growing, for sure. But, counterintuitively, it is not growing at the same time, as the following charts show.

From a macro perspective, Google is boxed in by two factors: The available population on the Internet and the population on the mobile portion of the Internet.

Google – according to numbers from Asymco, the quant-y tech analysts – may not be growing so much as it is merely floating in place on a rising tide of humanity.

Unfortunately for Google, that tide is about to go out.

Internet growth is slowing – and Google is the Internet Google handles about 80% of all search queries, and hundreds of millions of people use Gmail and YouTube, its most famous brands. Google is so dominant that its economics are, in many ways, a proxy for the Web as a whole. How grows the Internet, grows Google. Read More News>>

Facebook launches optional Nearby Friends feature for Android and iOS

Facebook today launched Nearby Friends, a new option in the company’s main app for Android and iOS rolling out “over the coming weeks” in the US. The feature lets you see which friends are close to you, assuming that both you and the other party have enabled the functionality first.
nearby friends1 Facebook launches optional Nearby Friends feature for Android and iOS
Before we dig in, it’s important to note where in the Facebook app you can access Nearby Friends. You’ll have to tap the “More” icon in the bottom-right corner, and hit “Nearby Friends” located just above “Nearby Places.” If you have already turned the feature on, you can also access it by opening the friends menu by swiping from the right, and you may also see a News Feed story showing you a list of friends nearby.

Opt-in for both parties

When we talked to Facebook product manager Andrea Vaccari, he made a point to emphasize that the feature was entirely optional. Not only is it off by default, but even if you turn it on, you have to still choose what group of friends to share your location with (Friends, Close Friends, or a specific friends list you’ve curated – “Public” and “Friends of Friends” are not available options). On top of that, you and your friend both have to have the feature turned on, and explicitly be sharing with each other, to see each other’s proximity.
nearby friends press 1 Facebook launches optional Nearby Friends feature for Android and iOS
We say “proximity” because Vaccari used the terminology to emphasize what you see once you’ve flipped the switch: the feature shows “not where they are, but whether they are close.” Notice in the right-hand screenshot below that Vaccari’s friends are listed by distance. Where they actually are, aside from “Near San Francisco, CA” and “Near Menlo Park, CA” is not shown.
nearby friends press 3 Facebook launches optional Nearby Friends feature for Android and iOS
This is in the “Nearby” section but the next two are also interesting: Traveling shows you who is on the go and Elsewhere shows you which of your friends are in a different part of the world. If a friend is far from you, you’ll get less specific information (like the city or country). If they are closer, you may see more (like the neighborhood). Read More News>>

How to Backup Your Android Phone

To back up your Android phone, you have a variety of options. The simplest and most basic backup is the computer backup. Connect your device to your PC via USB cable.

On your Android, pull down the main menu (swipe down from the top of the screen) and select ‘USB connection.’ On the next screen, choose USB Mass Storage and tap OK. On your computer, a new drive/removable disk should appear.

Open it, and copy everything into a folder on your computer, and you are done with the basic backup. This is something you should do once every few months.

For more regular backups, you have a variety of options. You can use an app – of which there are several – and quite a few of them are free. You can take a piecemeal approach and backup individual items separately. To back up your mail, contact lists, calendar entries and settings, you can use Google as the back up source.

Go to Settings and then Privacy. Make sure the check boxes for ‘Back up my settings’ and ‘Automatic Restore’ are selected. From there, go back and select ‘Account & Sync’ and select the boxes ‘Sync Contacts’, ‘Sync Gmail’, ‘Sync Calendar’.

For photographs, you have a variety of options. You can use the Google Plus app. After logging into your Google Plus account, enable Instant Upload through the Settings menu. Make sure that the Sync box for instant upload is selected in your Accounts and Sync settings is selected.

Alternatively, just manually drag and drop the contents of the DCIM folder into your PC, after connecting it with your USB cable.

Giftease Launches Gift via Email

India’s leading online gift destination, Giftease.com brings awesome news for gift seekers this summer. To delight its shoppers, Giftease has launched Gift via Email feature recently that connects friends and family in an amazing manner. The feature allows you to send gifts even if you don’t have the postal address of your loved one. Gift via email works in a pretty simple way, customers opting to choose Gift Via Email have to place an order and select ‘delivery via email ID’ option during checkout. The Giftease team then gets in touch with email recipient and requests them to share their postal address, if they accept the gift. The chosen gift then gets delivered to the recipient and the customer is informed about the delivery.

In case, the recipient doesn’t accept the gift, Giftease shall cancel the order and refund the money to customer in 3 working days. The Gift via Email comes with no extra charges on shipping for customers. However, Fixed Date Delivery and Cash on Delivery options are not applicable on the Gift via Email feature. Says Vivek Mathur, CEO-Giftease.com, “We are always looking at ways to provide great gifting solutions and we are delighted to bring the Gift via Email option to our customers. This is a simple yet engaging way to connect further with our customers who love to send gifts to their friends and family. Through Gift via Email, customers have the opportunity to send a gift without worrying about the delivery address.”

About Giftease.com

Founded in Feb 2012, Giftease is India’s leading online gift destination. The online store brings a variety of gift options in Home Décor, Jewellery, Fashion, Gadgets, Books, Toys and more for all age groups and occasions. Committed to offering only selected items, which meets quality standards, and to deliver delight to the recipient, Giftease takes special care in packaging and delivering gifts to the recipients. Headquartered in Pune, Giftease is led by experienced professionals from eCommerce and technology industry.

Nokia just hit a $571-million obstacle to completing its deal with Microsoft

The Supreme Court of India ruled today that Nokia must deposit 35 billion rupees ($571 million) in an escrow account before it can transfer its factory in India to Microsoft as a part of its 5.4-billion-euro deal to sell its mobile phones business to the tech giant. The court also wants Nokia to “waive some of its rights to legal defense as a condition for transferring Indian assets to Microsoft,” reports Reuters.

The company finds itself in this situation as a result of a long-running tax dispute, one of many involving Indian authorities and multi-national companies. India has been seeking Rs 21 billion ($339 million) in back taxes on income from downloads on phones made in India. Nokia argued that a bilateral tax treaty between India and Finland, where it is headquartered, means it doesn’t have to pay such taxes. As the case went on, Nokia agreed to set aside Rs 22.5 billion—but a high court asked it to deposit some more, in case of further tax disputes. Read More News>>

Google launches indoor maps in India

Google on Wednesday announced the availability of indoor maps in India. The company said that users of Google Maps on Android, iOS and personal computers can now access the floor plans of 75 places in 22 Indian cities.

Most of these 75 places are shopping malls but museums and convention halls also find a mention in the list. Similarly, while most of these places are located in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai, some buildings from Raipur and Ludhiana too are a part of the project.

“We launched indoor maps in countries like the US earlier. Now we are bringing it to India. We worked with mall owners and authorities that manage a place to get the floor plans and location details and have added that information to Google Maps,” Suren Ruhela, director and product manager, India Google Maps, told TOI. “For now we are starting with 75 places. But as we get feedback from consumers and work with more partners, we hope to add more places.” Read More News>>