Cheap Android 4.0 Phones in India by April

MediaTek, a semiconductor company has launched its third generation platform (chipset) - the MT6575- which is meant to support Android 4.0 operating system on mid and entry level Android smartphones.

This new chipset will enable low-end phone makers like Micromax, Lava and Spice to come up with cheap Android 4.0 phones by April this year. These new Android smartphones is supposed to come under the price range of 5000 to 10000.

According to a release from MediaTek, MT6575 platform offers a 1 GHz ARM CortexTM A9 processer, a 3G/HSPA+">HSPA modem and it runs the latest Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 smoothly. The chip will also support 720p high definition video playback and recording with an 8 megapixel camera, and qHD (960 x 540 pixel) high resolution displays.

According to MediaTek, "In industry standard benchmark testing, MT6575 offered over 35 per cent improvement for browser applications and over 20 per cent improvement in graphics capabilities for gaming when compared to the competitors' best offerings in these segments."

Till now only high-end devices have come up with Android 4.0, even the upgradations are for high-end devices only. But this new chipset is determined to change this trend by making the Google’s latest operating system available on low-end devices.

Nokia Belle Update for Symbian Smartphones

Nokia announced the availability of Nokia Belle update for existing users of the latest Symbian Nokia smartphones (Symbian ^3 and Symbian Anna). The upgrade brings a brand new user interface, improved experience and enhanced performance on the existing Nokia devices. Users can download it simply by connecting the device to a PC with the latest version of Nokia Suite (3.3 or later) installed or by visiting the nearest Nokia Priority Partners in their city to ensure a smooth and reliable update process. At present the upgrade is available on the Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01, Nokia E7, Nokia E6 and Nokia X7 devices.

The Nokia Belle upgrade ensures more personalization options with new live widgets, easy shortcuts and up to six home screens. The new and improved Nokia Belle interface also includes new features like imaging applications with HD video recording at 30 frames per second, a visually improved browser enabling high-quality browsing and viewing of Web videos. The menus have been simplified and a notifications bar has been added to make accessing key settings and features, very fast and just a few taps away. Additionally, also included are larger live widget displays right onto the home screen to keep the user updated.

Young Indians Watches More Internet, Less TV

Television is one of the major pass-time in all homes, but this trend is changing slowly as the younger generation is spending more time on internet than television. Internet is penetrating more into Indian veins and its impacting the way Indian youths likes to spend their leisure time.

Some very interesting facts about the leisure habits of 12-24-year-olds was revealed by one of Technopak's recent studies- India Consumer Trends which states that even though watching television is the most prominent among leisure activities for the youth, taking up close to three hours every day, but its importance is reducing as gaming, Internet browsing and other 'my time' entertainment options become popular.

56 per cent of Indian youth spend more than two hours on the internet during the weekday as against just 44 per cent of them spending even more than one hour watching television. The engagement with internet further increases on weekends with 69 per cent youngsters spending more than two hours as compared to 35 per cent spending more than three hours watching television, according to an online survey done by ViziSense on 500 young internet users.

Urban way of living, penetration of social networking sites like Facebook which fulfills the socializing attribute and the entertainment through online games are making youth to sit in front of their PC. The research further said that youngsters prefer to visit Facebook and social media pages of companies rather than their websites for information and products offerings. The usage of internet by youngsters further extends to mobile with 50 per cent of them accessing the web daily through their mobile phones.

80 Percent Parents Can't Operate their Kids Gadgets

The digital gap between parents and their kids has become wider as majority of the parents doesn’t understand or knows to operate their children’s high-tech gadgets, according to a study carried out by the ParentPort website.

The study revealed that a quarter of children were allowed to play games classified above their age, and 40 per cent were allowed to watch films above their age limit. And when parents are asked to operate their children's gadgets, over 80 percent of them fails in the task as they are completely clueless about its technology and functioning. Furthermore 16% of parents surveyed said they had bought their children a device or gadget – such as a games console or MP3 player – which they themselves did not fully understand how to use.

Guy Parker, ASA Chief Executive said: "Parents, carers and guardians play an important role as the first line of defense in deciding what's appropriate for their children to see. But quite rightly, they expect support from media regulators.”

The report also states that the parents surveyed did not just give into their children’s appetite for the media – many also closely supervise what their children see and use. In fact, 82% of the parents surveyed claimed they always know what films and television programmes their children watch, and 77% said they always or usually know what websites their children visit.

5 Hot Specialties Developers Need to Know

You as a programmer, do you live under constant fear of your job being outsourced, or shipped overseas or you being ousted by another smart coder? If the answer to even one these questions is a yes, then this is a wakeup call for you to specialize.

“There is demand, but no supply of good programmers” complain the tech giants. So how does a developer live up to the industry standards where rote coding and code maintenance are easily classified as nothing more than low-value functions and ones that are easily outsourced.

There is no denying that coding is still a lucrative job. But with most of the code available as library functions and thousands of public code repositories, even cream of the crop in industry do not fall back on copy-pasting the code from the readily available sources or easily outsourcing it to third party companies. So developers who want to maintain an advantage, and prove to be the best of the lot, in today's job market need to specialize.

With IT sector growing at a faster pace than expected, it throws open new genres in technology to explore each day, new possibilities to live up to and challenges to confront. So according to Neil McAllister from Developers World, given below are the five specialized skill areas that are sure to experience rapid growth in the coming years.

1) Cross-Platform Mobile Developers

Tech savvy or not, customers buy their phones based on features, applications, budget and the Smart Phone stands a winner for its convenience and novelty. The Smartphone model chosen by a user actually determines the OS preferred, and with so many players emerging in the market every day, the only trick developers’ need to know is how to access APIs that enable their various features, regardless of platform. This is not possible and easy, because each platform demands a different set of programming, which means a specialized programming language for every app, for every platform, using different set of tools.

Mobile tool makers and vendors can be of great help for cross-platform mobile app development if they build their tools to be compatible on multiple platforms. And developers who are well versed in two or more mobile ecosystems will find themselves in highest demand.

2) Mainframe/Cloud Integration Specialist

Cloud computing is famously called the reincarnation of mainframe and cloud computing platforms are all the rage for Web applications. But some mainframe advocates argue that developing a private cloud would be redundant, as the mainframe provides the flexible, agile and combined with environment promised with cloud computing. The facts rest assured, cloud computing is being adopted at a faster pace by smaller organizations but players in large sectors like retailing, finance, insurance, banking and telecom, mainframe rules the roost.

But now there is a hype to move applications from mainframe to cloud and engineers who speak both COBOL and JAVA with equal ease will be the ones in demand because companies migrating their sensitive –mission -critical transaction -processing applications off their mainframes will look forward for programmers who they can rely on to bridge the two worlds. So Integration is the buzz word here and you can be the winner if you are one among the rare breed of native mainframe programmer learning a lot of virtual cloud.

3) Cloud Migration Engineer

A lot said and done about cloud computing, but now companies investing heavily in the cloud data storage are facing troubles of different kinds. Cloud came with many pros attached but with cons not so far behind. Cloud computing makes IT excessively dependent on the Internet but improved time to application development.

But markets are still experiencing growing pains and cost advantage of public cloud offering is still not clear. Mixed response from company’s who have accepted cloud offerings for their features, security and stability might soon start feeling frustrated over the services providers. Network bandwidth may soon become a bottleneck with some services.

As soon as the hype around cloud computing starts wearing off and with multiple options available, companies will start treating their service providers as vendors and hunt for other others who can grant higher services. When they are not happy with one vendor, they’ll take businesses to others.

Now cloud integration specialists have a major role to play when data is moved from one cloud to another more mature cloud storage service. Knowing ins and outs of various cloud vendors APIs, SLAs, services, and supported technologies will be a boon to companies who plan to switch service providers in a hurry.

4) RIA Portability Specialist

Rich Internet Applications (RIA), a rage with web developers, and they are not moving away from rich content application. But plug-ins to deliver sophisticated graphics and interactivity saw a walk out some time ago.

Flash and Silverlight have been ousted by HTML5 and its related technologies which has a way forward. Steve Jobs banned using Flash in Apple’s iOS platforms and has since been on the verge of death along with Silverlight whose future looks bleak.

But what about Flash and Silverlight videos, high in education content, valuable education, e-commerce applications and data visualization which have already been deployed across the web. These need to be preserved for the future use with a priority.

Now the demand is for RIA portability specialists as conversion from Flash to HTML5 isn't easy. HTML authoring tools for rich applications are emerging, but only slowly. So the demand is growing for web developers who have tasted both waters, who are ahead and have a bend for HTML5 and firmly rooted in yesteryears plugin-based technologies.

5) Parallel Computing Architect

With multi processor CPU’s streaming in, technology phasing out its own inventions each new day, applications scale out, not up. Stark reality is parallel computing is still yet to be realized for its full potential, one of the least understood disciplines in software development.

Major tool development vendors have projects underway to help make build parallel computing applications. Languages such as Google’s Go and IBM’s X10 that make designing concurrent algorithms more intuitive have been developed. But none of these efforts have yet made multiprocessing reachable and accessible to developers as parallel computing requires more than just new tools, an out of the box thinking and developers who can provide the picture perfect effective concurrent application design will be the need of the hour.

Best Android Travel Apps for India

You are always on the go with your Android device; it will be great if the smart android device becomes your personal guide in your tour. Here is a list of best Travel apps which will take care of your requirements when you are travelling in and out of the city.

1. MapMyIndia ShowNearby:

This app help you to find out ATMs, petrol pumps, Banks, Movie Theatres, Restaurants by Cuisine, Attractions, Shopping destinations by category, and emergency services like Hospitals and Police Stations. You can allow this app to use your GPS to set your location and then you just have to select categories and sub-categories to get all the information about various locations, distances and details. This app is available for free in the Android market.

2. JustDial:

JustDail app provides a local search service; it gives the details about the best restaurants and lounges in the city, the latest art shows, ATMs, Hotels, Doctors and much more. The app uses in built GPS functionality of your smart phone to detect your current location and provides Mapping and Navigation features by leveraging the built in Google Maps application. JustDail app is available for free in Android market.

3. Getit:

Getit is the most popular app for local information. This App Auto detects your current location using GPS, provides Quick links to top/popular categories, it refines your search based on attributes and location, it shows Interactive Google map with directions. This is also a free app in the Android market.

4. NGPay:

ngpay is India's largest mall on mobile with 100+ stores. It helps to book rail, air, bus tickets and hotels; buy movie tickets; shop and send gifts through your smartphone. ngpay is also the official mobile banking application for Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, this facility allows you to do transactions like balance enquiry, fund transfer & more. The App is for free in Android market.

5. Ixigo:

This app helps you to make your trip more cost effective as it provides the details of about more than 100 travel sites which give best rates for hotels and flights. The app helps to find cheap flights to any part of the world and can also track flight status and delays, find airport Information and locations, and airline phone numbers. Users also get to compare 250,000+ hotels globally and can view hotel photos, amenity information, room rates and availability. The app is free in the Android market.

6. Zomato:

Zomato lets you search menus across 22,000 restaurants in India across 10 cities. It also helps you to check ratings, reviews and pictures of all restaurants in your city. But you can’t do booking through this app, for which you have to use apps like NGPay. Zomato is also a free app in the Android market.

New App to Find who 'Unfriends' You on Facebook

People who have been "unfriended" on social network Facebook can now check out the person through a new software that can be installed in any internet browser.

The software -- called "Unfriend Finder" -- also alerts users when someone rejects or ignores a friend request.

It is free, and till date has been downloaded 44 million times, the Daily Mail reported.

The script works in browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Users see a red counter in their menu bar which comes up "-1" when someone unfriends them.

Facebook itself does not have the option of alerting people when they are removed from the friends list.