It’s Monday morning and it’s also the last week of 2016. With the festive season going on currently, you might have been offline. But, worry not. We at trak bring you all tech buzz from last week with our weekly wrap-up!
Instagram had crossed the 500 million subscriber mark in June 2016, and in only six months, the social media platform has added another 100 million. The total stands at 600 million, which is a huge feat, and almost equal to half the population size of India.
To raise this issue with the telcos, the Government is planning to launch a single number to complain about call drops. The number ‘1955’ will be instilled specifically for customers to lodge complaints related to call drops on their network.
Now, according to leaks and WABetaInfo’s twitter handle, WhatsApp will allow you to revoke sent messages, and even edit them. This news is sugar to the ears of a WhatsApp user, because so many times in the day I sometimes send a message I did not want to.
Amazon India has finally launched their own mobile wallet – Amazon Pay Balance, which will help their customers to go cashless, and complete the payment easily.
No, we are not judging demonetization via three case studies; but we are presenting an observation which can help the Govt. to decide the right course of action. And, it may give you a clearer picture of this movement, seen from the lenses of business and growth.
Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has announced that IRCTC will soon launch a product, using which non-smartphone users can easily book an online ticket. Right now, only those who can access Internet via smartphone or desktop/laptop can use IRCTC’s app/website to book an online ticket.
Ironically the Gboard was an iOS exclusive for months and was not available on the Google Play Store, however much to our pleasure they launched it for Android users. The Gboard has made its way to android as an update to their existing Google Keyboard.
Why is it that we don’t see too many businesses talk of or focus on succession planning in spite of the fact that finding the right successor can be an arduous and time consuming process and has a direct impact on the longevity of the business?
Telecom Authority Of India has finally jumped into the ongoing debate for a better cashless society in India; and they have made two strong suggestions which should be taken seriously by Govt. of India.
There are strong, unconfirmed reports that in the next Union Budget, Govt. of India may revise the existing Income Tax slabs for individuals. As per insider reports, this announcement can be made before UP Elections, which are most probably happening in the months of February-March next year.
Amazon is taking their Hyperlocal Grocery delivery service further and launching it in two largest cities in India – Delhi and Mumbai. Both these cities will now be able to order groceries and other essentials from the Amazon Now app. Note that this service is different from Amazon Pantry, which allows you to buy essentials on a need basis, rather than in bulk.
The open ideals that Google pushed helped unprecedented diversity and a magnificent smartphone revolution that despite its persistent effort, Apple’s iOS hasn’t beaten yet. But the operating system dominance came with a cost – Android Fragmentation.
To raise this issue with the telcos, the Government is planning to launch a single number to complain about call drops. The number ‘1955’ will be instilled specifically for customers to lodge complaints related to call drops on their network.
In a major decision by Delhi Court today, admins of such social media groups have been provided relief from such unnecessary legal action due to content posted by others. In the ruling, Delhi HC made it clear that the admins of Whatsapp group cannot be held responsible for any defamatory text or controversial content posted by its members.
In what could be yet another big win for #MakeInIndia initiative launched by the Modi Government, Apple is now keen to start manufacturing iPhones in India. Citing unnamed senior Govt officials WSJ (paywalled) has said that Apple is currently in discussions with the Government.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has given a sneak peek into Jarvis, the artificial intelligence personal assistant he has been building this year. With the Jarvis project, Zuckerberg wanted to use his voice to control everything in his house, from the music to the light, to the temperature.
With the recent update Instagram has again copied Snapchat’s basic ideology – and they have even one-upped Snapchat! The update adds sticker supports, location stickers and hands-free video recording. The latter is considered as Snapchat killer considering that it does not support the same as of now.
Hong Kong, which is a major strategic and political ally of India has announced that they will no longer allow visa-free entry for Indians. This is being regarded as a huge setback for India’s foreign diplomacy and a big step backwards for improving trade relations.
Alibaba owned UCWeb, parent company of UC Browser has just released their own tech predictions for 2017, and going by the looks of it, 2017 promises to be a roller coaster year for technology and innovation.
In the beginning Paytm managed to handle all the operations and transactions pretty well, but now there are multiple reports of service outages, transaction failures and payment gateway interruptions.
The Union Cabinet today approved the ordinance route to amend the Payment of Wages Act, 1936, to allow employers of certain industries to make payment through the electronic mode and cheques.
Trustlook says that currently over 700 million Android smartphones have Adups firmware installed that puts every single user at the risk of having their contacts, text messages, call histories and device information collected without their knowledge.
It seems some politicians and policy makers from Karnataka are hell bent on re-igniting that fire, and relaunching reservation battle in their state, because very soon, 100% job quota for locals can be announced there.
As per latest data shared by Electronics and IT Ministry, it was revealed that e-Wallets are right now the #1 choice for majority of buyers and sellers, followed by UPI based payments, USSD based payments and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS).
IITs, the premier educational establishment of India which boasts of the highest quality of engineers, are right now trying to figure out what went wrong here. The reason is that, Rs 1 crore+ pay packages for freshers passing out from IITs have dramatically fallen in the last two years.
Snapdeal has launched a pilot service in Gurugram and Bengaluru, called ‘Cash@Home’ that allows users to order cash and deliver it at the doorstep. The users will be able to pay for the cash through their ATM card.
In Computer Security space, 2016 will be remembered as the year when Hacking went mainstream. Online world witnessed 7 major hacking incidents which compromised user data of over 2 billion!
Now, the rules are being changed. Besides money for buying a new car, you also need to show evidence that you have enough parking space for that car. In case you fail to do so, then Govt. won’t allow you to purchase a new car.
India’s national telecom carrier, BSNL, has just announced a flat discount of 0.75% for every customer who uses cashless mode to pay their bills. And in a bid to promote their new broadband service using V-Fiber technology, India’s largest telecom player Airtel has announced free three months of broadband Internet for all their landline customers.
Way back in 2014, we had said that Uber is disrupting $9 billion Indian taxi market, and existing players such as Meru, Easycabs should be concerned. Within three years of their launch in India, Uber has officially beaten their three times older competitors, thereby proving our disruptive theory correct.
While you are at it, do check out our up-to-date Indian Startup Funding & Investment Chart of 2016.
And here is our Weekly wrap-up in video format. Do let us know how you like it.
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