TCS to hire 45,000 IT professionals this year

 With positive commentary and a strong set of numbers, Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) and HCL Technologies put to rest concerns raised by Infosys about the prospects of India's $108-billion (Rs 5.8 lakh crore) IT industry. 

Top-ranked TCS and fourth-ranked HCL Technologies have been the growth leaders of Indian information technology and they continued in the same vein on Wednesday, demonstrating once again that Infosys' below-par performance is because of company-specific problems and not indicative of softening demand. "Our performance is likely to be better in FY14 compared with this year," said TCS Chief Executive Officer N Chandrasekaran. 

"The order book going into FY14 is quite good. We are pursuing more number of large deals both in terms of number and size than last year." Earlier in the day, Noida-based HCL Technologies reported a 3.2% sequential growth in sales, helped by its infrastructure management business, one of its strongest service lines. 

"Our funnel (contracts being pursued) is up by about 40% compared with same time last year and the re-bid market continues to be robust," said HCL Technologies CEO Anant Gupta. HCL's growth was also driven by enterprise software-related work, where it built strong capabilities by acquiring the UK's Axon few years ago. 

"Strong set of results from TCS and HCL Tech shrug off any concerns regarding health of the Indian IT industry raised because of a weak performance by Infosys," said Ankita Somani of Angel Broking. She said TCS results were in line with expectations. Last week, second-ranked Infosys reported sales growth that came in below expectations and projected a 6-10 % revenue growth for FY14, well below the average software industry growth rates of 12-14 % projected by industry body Nasscom. 

TCS, which does not provide guidance, said it would grow above industry growth estimates. Shares of TCS closed 1.7% lower on BSE at Rs 1,459, ahead of its results announcement while those of HCL closed 1.5% lower at Rs 751. They were pushed lower because of fears that a proposed new immigration law in the US could raise costs for Indian software service providers. 

Over the past year or so, the industry has seen significant divergence in the pace of growth among its top players. Bangalore-based Infosys and Wipro, which underwent management change and organisational restructuring, continue to lag the industry. TCS said deals in mobility, social, big data and cloud were growing faster than the company average. "This is a very important area where we've made significant investments. 

Deal sizes are small but we are signing a number of deals," said Chandrasekaran. The company said it signed at least 100 deals in digital space in the fourth quarter alone, with mobility and big data growing the fastest. For the first time, TCS also indicated a profit margin level for FY14, with CFO Rajesh Gopinath saying, it would try to defend operating profit margins at 27%. 

HCL's operating profit margin, an area that used to be a cause for concern among analysts, declined by 50 basis points to 23.3%. TCS also became the first Indian IT company to announce salary increments for the year. India employees will get an average salary increment of 7%, employees in other developing countries 4-6 %, and onsite employees 2-4 %, its global HR head Ajoy Mukherjee said. 
HCL's increment cycle is July-September and the company said it would make an announcement then. Infosys, which delayed increments last year, has so far not announced any for this year. It said it is making changes to its compensation structure. TCS said it will hire 45,000 professionals this year and has already made 25,000 campus offers to recent graduates who will start joining the company from September onwards.

Soon, replace your passwords with your thoughts

You may be spared from typing pesky passwords in the future. Instead of typing your password, you may only have to think about it, thanks to a new wireless headset device developed by researchers.

Remembering passwords for all your sites can get annoying. There are only so many punctuation, number substitutes and uppercase variations you can recall, and writing them down for all to find is hardly an option.

Researchers at the University of California Berkeley School of Information developed the device that explores the feasibility of brainwave-based computer authentication as a substitute for passwords. By measuring brain-waves with bio-sensor technology, researchers are able to replace passwords with "passthoughts" for computer authentication, website 'Mashable' reported.

A USD 100 headset wirelessly connects to a computer via Bluetooth, and the device's sensor rests against the user's forehead, providing a electroencephalogram (EEG) signal from the brain. The NeuroSky Mindset looks just like any other Bluetooth set and is more user-friendly, researchers said.

Brainwaves are also unique to each individual, so even if someone knew your passthought, their emitted EEG signals would be different. "Other than the EEG sensor, the headset is indistinguishable from a conventional Bluetooth headset for use with mobile phones, music players, and other computing devices," according to the researchers.

Participants, in a series of tests, completed seven different mental tasks with the device, including imagining their finger moving up and down and choosing a personalized secret, the report said.

Simple actions like focusing on breathing or on a thought for ten seconds resulted in successful authentication. "We find that brainwave signals, even those collected using low-cost non-intrusive EEG sensors in everyday settings, can be used to authenticate users with high degrees of accuracy," the researchers concluded.

Google deleted 60,000 "low-quality" apps from Play Store

Google deleted 60,000 "low-quality" apps from the Google Play application marketplace in February 2013, according to a report

The report indicates that a large number of apps in the MP3/ ringtone category were deleted as they might have been violating copyright, which is against Google's policies. Google doesn't disclose app removals publicly.

While Google doesn't pre-approve apps like Apple, but it does scan its app store for violation of terms and pulls them out if they're found to be guilty, as noted by the report. 

Google had also removed AdBlock Plus, an app that lets users block advertisements while browsing the web, in addition to other similar apps such as AdAway, from the Play Store, in March. 

 by TechCrunch. The online publication says that it learned of this round of app deletions from a company in the mobile app industry which tracks these developments without specifying the company's name. However, it does give a disclaimer that some app publishers might have pulled the apps themselves.

Google may buy Whatsapp for $1 billion

NEW DELHI: The hugely popular social media app WhatsApp may soon become a part of Google, with online media abuzz with reports of the internet titan courting the smartphone messaging app maker. Technology website Digital Trends, citing an inside source, has reported that a deal between Google and WhatsApp has been in works for the past four to five weeks. Google and WhatsApp are currently said to be negotiating over pricing of the deal. Says the report, WhatsApp is playing hardball and jockeying for a higher acquisition price, which currently is "close to" $1. Google is rumoured to be working on Babel, a mobile messaging app that unifies various communication services under one umbrella. WhatsApp is the most popular mobile instant messengers, ahead of rivals like Viber, Kik, WeChat, Nimbuzz etc. It is among the top paid apps in over 100 countries and charges $0.99 for annual ad-free subscription. If the acquisition is successful, WhatsApp will join the ranks of Google's high-profile buyouts like YouTube and Android. This is the second time that reports of WhatsApp's takeover have emerged in the past year, as Facebook was in talks to acquire it previously. Last year, Facebook reportedly made an offer for WhatsApp, which was denied by the latter.

Over 6 million new website names added to Internet in Oct-Dec 2012

Over six million new domain names were registered in the October-December period of 2012, taking the total number of registered domain names to 252 million n worldwide, says a report. "More than six million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing the total number of registered domain names to more than 252 million worldwide across all top-level domains as of December 31, 2012," VeriSign, the global registry operator for .com and .net said in a report. The increase of 6.1 million domain names globally equates to a growth rate of 2.5 per cent over the third quarter of 2012 and marks the eighth straight quarter with more than 2 nper cent growth, it added. "Worldwide registrations have grown by 26.6 million, or 11.8 per cent, year over year," the report said. The .com and .net TLDs reached a combined total of approximately 121.1 million domain names in the adjusted zone for .com and .net, it added. "As of December 31, 2012, the base of registered names in com equalled 106.2 million names, while .net equalled 14.9 million names," it said. The .com and .net renewal rate for the fourth quarter of 2012 was 72.9 per cent, up slightly from 72.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2012. Renewal rates vary quarter over quarter based on the composition of the expiring name base and the contribution of specific registrars. "During the fourth quarter of 2012, Verisign average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load was 77 billion, across all TLDs operated by Verisign, with a peak of 123 billion," it said.

Mozilla Firefox gets updated, now with improved private browsing

Mozilla has unleashed the latest version of Firefox for desktop as well as Android devices and has incorporated a spate of improvements in the browser. The enhancements drawn in are directed towards privacy, downloads and developers.

Augmentations made to private browsing allow users to concurrently open up a new window, while their current sessions remain unclosed as well as uninterrupted. Consumers will even be able to sign in to and access several e-mail accounts at the same time. The security element is also deemed possible on devices based on the said platform, wherein it is carried out through tabs. Owners will be able to switch between tabs within a same session.

With the addition of a new and improved Download Manager located on the toolbar, users can easily find, check and keep a track of whatever they have saved. This can be accomplished without having to open up a new window. Check out the demonstration video embedded at the end for more clarity. As for the mobile browser, shortcuts can be tailored according to what websites consumers consider important or pages they frequent most often.

Developers will be glad to hear about increased levels of support for them, which includes getUserMedia to enable speedy as well as easy coding for programs intended to access cameras or microphones. In addition to this, a toolbox has been provided consisting of resources for coders. It also offers advice on easy methods to switch between various tools that they use. In terms of visual effects, Canvas Blend Modes permits them to personalize already existing images. They can give out instructions to guide Canvas around how they want the picture to look.

Back in September, the company had released a beta version for phones that contained ARMv6 processors. Now, it has finally introduced support for these chipsets which are present in devices like the Samsung Galaxy Next, HTC Aria and Legend amongst others. The tool even allows synchronization between desktops and mobiles, so that consumers don’t lose track of what they were surfing through.

Potential users can download Mozilla Firefox from the official website and those who want the browser present on their Android devices, can lay their hands on it through the Play store.

Apple to release updated phone this summer

The Wall Street Journal says Apple is set for a possible summer launch of the next iPhone, rather than a fall launch like the last two models.

Apple is also working on a cheaper iPhone model that could win it some market share in developing countries, the paper says. It cited unnamed people "familiar with the device's production.''

The report is in line with the expectations of company watchers and Wall Street analysts. The iPhone 5 costs around $600, and while Apple maintains older iPhones in production, even those aren't cheap enough to compete effectively against low-end smartphones running Google Inc.'s Android software.

Apple doesn't comment on future products before its launch events.

Need a Facebook Phone?

While phone-makers are doing their best to out-do themselves, here’s one more familiar name entering the mobile market. That of Facebook. While Facebook rumors have never really died down, Mark Zuckerberg’s open invitation to the press for creating a ‘New Home on Android’ have sure added oil to the fire.

Though most say that Facebook is finally launching a phone, there are others who contest that the Android app is set to be completely overhauled. However, if the first case is true, it raises before us the pressing question: Do we really need a Facebook phone? A Facebook exclusive device?

HTC's Facebook phones: the ChaCha and the Salsa

Honestly, we do not see the point of having one. There are all types of phones in the market, phones that can track your eye movements, phones that have dual screens, phones that let you click high definition images, etc, etc. Name it and you have it in a phone. So unless Facebook comes up with some path-breaking technologies for their phone, we really do not see a point in another run-of-the-mill device.

And what special can a Facebook phone do? Let you stay in touch over the site 24x7? People can anyways do that with the Facebook app. Do you really need a phone for that? Perhaps the phone will instantly share any image you click to the social networking site. Or perhaps the device will be a Facebook exclusive device where the home-screen will be the timeline and each time you get a call from anyone, the phone sends them a friend request from you if you’re not friends already on the social networking site. Whatever the case, we are still sceptical about the exact “features” of this rumored new phone.

However, perhaps, a ‘simple’ device will add glamour and uniqueness to the product. Where phone companies are lost in wars with each one trying to outbid the next, the Facebook phone might provide a fresh breath. Our smart-phones are getting more and more complicated by the day and a device which lets you call but for everything else (messaging, pictures, videos) there’s just one function: Facebook sounds appealing. The simple phone has lost its charm and with its one-app-for-all technology, Facebook might actually be able to bring simplicity back.

However, the phone, if true, will be based on the Android platform which itself makes the whole simplicity idea nothing but a gimmick. It is a free platform and sooner or later the Facebook phone is sure to be filled with all kinds of apps.

Most of the above are in-the-air theories with not even the Facebook phone being a reality. But the announcement of “Home on Android” by Facebook has sure made us wonder if there is the need or the space for a new mobile giant. It was difficult enough keeping track of all smartphone companies suing each other and who won over whom to add one more to the fray. We do hope for the sake of legal sanity that Facebook sticks to an overhauled app and does not launch a complete new device. If only, wishes were horses...