|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

After having launched the ZenPad amongst much fanfare at Zen Festival in August, ASUS have announced the availability of ZenPad in India. Sold in three variants – ZenPad 8.0, ZenPad 7.0 and ZenPad C 7.0, customers will be able to purchase them at ASUS exclusive stores and on Flipkart.

ZenPad 7.0 will be available immediately and ZenPad 8.0 and ZenPad C 7.0 will be available from October end. The announcement comes close on the heels of ASUS’ decision to manufacture its smartphones, Zenfone 2 Laser and ZenFone Go in India, and strengthens the brand’s portfolio of smart devices in the country.

Asus_Zenpad_01

ZenPad 8.0 – With a display size of 20.3 centimeters, ZenPad 8.0 comes with a Qualcomm MSM8929 64-bit Octa Core Processor and 16 GB in-built memory. The device has an 8 MP auto-focus main camera that is armed with features like larger aperture, pixel master camera for brighter photos, zero shutter lag and manual mode support, and a 2 MP front camera with 140 degree selfie panorama. Available in two colors – Obsidian Black and Aurora Metallic, ZenPad 8.0 is priced at INR 17,999 with audio cover and INR 14,999 without audio cover.

ZenPad 7.0 – It has a display size of 17.7 centimeters and includes an Intel Atom x3-C3230 Quad Core Processor. Other features of ZenPad 7.0 include an internal memory of 16 GB, an 8 MP main camera with auto-focus, manual mode, IR filter and a 2 MP front camera. Priced at INR 14,999 with audio cover and INR 11,999 without audio cover, ZenPad 7.0 is available in two colors as well – Obsidian Black, Aurora Metallic.

ZenPad C 7.0 – The product has the same display size as ZenPad 7.0 and carries an Intel 64-bit x3-C3230 Quad-core Processor. The device has a 5 MP main camera and a 0.3 MP front camera. ZenPad C 7.0 comes in three colors – Obsidian Black, Glamour Red, Aurora Metallic and is available for INR 8,999.

All ZenPad variants operate on Android v 5.0 [Lollipop], offer IPS display upto 178 degrees viewing angle and come equipped with Zen Motion support Touch gesture providing a superior experience. Users also get 5 GB ASUS Web Storage space for life with an additional 11 GB for the first year and 100 GB of Google Drive space for two years.

About ASUS

ASUS is a worldwide top-three consumer notebook vendor and maker of the world’s best-selling, most award-winning motherboards. A leading enterprise in the new digital era, ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home and office, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, displays, desktop and all-in-one PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia devices, wireless solutions, networking devices, tablets, smartphones and wearables. Company revenue for 2014 was approximately USD 14.5 billion.

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Spini, India’s first market place mobile application has announced its official entry into Hyderabad, in line with its aggressive strategy to expand in South India before exploring other parts of the Country. Headquartered in India out of Chennai, the real time information providing app has witnessed a surge in demand for its unique proposition of earning money by selling information, with more than 10,000 downloads within 4 months of its India launch. Available for free download on Apple Store and Google Play, Spini is the only app that allows users to make money from anywhere, anytime.

Connecting people with the right information at the right time through our apps, Spini is a marketplace that opens up a new horizon of business opportunities for referrers and salespersons. Spini launched operations in June this year having raised funding of USD 1 Million from Walden International which is also an early investor in BankBazzar to fuel India expansion and continuous development of its patented platform.

Spini_Logo

Spini offers its users the platform to make money on information they hold and the salesperson in turn gains a qualified lead where his chances of closing the sale are much higher and his productivity increases. Being a marketplace, people can post information related to a customer planning for a purchase and salesperson bid for and buy those as leads.

As opposed to popular online sites that help you just post information on Property/Real Estate, Renovation, Loans/Mortgages related queries, on Spini, one can earn money by simply referring a lead that he/she might have received from a friend, colleague or acquaintance, and earn money by bidding it among agents who have registered themselves on Spini.

While anyone, a student or a homemaker or a working professional can post the lead they possess, agents on the other hand stand to benefit from Spini’s expertise in allowing users to upload only genuine and verified leads to save time and effort.

Shankar G, Co-founder & CEO, Spini said

When you look at the app world today, you are clearly spoiled for choice with the kind of applications that are available at your disposal. While majority of them cater to the most pertinent desire for convenience, Spini has just made the experience more worthwhile while helping you earn some easy money through it. An Interior Decorator in Chennai has registered with Spini and manged to get business worth 25 lakhs under a month’s time through the verified leads he received on our platform.

Among many other referrers, a homemaker has earned 3000 and a working professional has earned 2000 by sharing their information on Spini. The referrer in this case could be you or me in possession of trivial information that we gather in our day to day conversation but can be very useful for someone else and would like to buy that from you. It has been an encouraging experience to witness traction among the southern part of the country. In fact the traction we have received in Hyderabad, only through word of mouth has helped us get record number of downloads in the least expected time. We are actively looking at spreading our wings to expand our user base in the north as well by end of 2015.

Spini offers a seamless yet streamlined customer experience that is both private and secure. Referrers have the option of observing anonymity while engaging in private chats with the bidders for their information while agents have the privilege of accessing a platform full of leads that is verified and one that provides transparency in the bidding process with an easy payment process.

Eddie Chau, Co-founder & Chairman, Spini said

The India launch seems to be taking pragmatic strides and we look forward to grow the India operations further. Given the market maturity and the increasing adoption of smart personal technologies for improved life quality, we are confident that India will emerge as one of our biggest and strongest markets in the years to come.

With a technically sound team spread across Chennai and Bangalore, we are certain that the India operations team can play a pivotal role in our expansion in other countries in South East Asia soon.

About Spini

Established in 2014, Spini was co-founded by Eddie Chau, Shankar G & Chong-Kian Soh in Singapore with India operations headquartered in Chennai. Spini is a revolutionary referral platform and an online marketplace where sales persons can source qualified sales leads and anyone can monetize information. Sales information on verticals like real estate, mortgage/loan, insurance and renovation will be available on Spini to start with. Connecting people with the right information at the right time through our apps, Spini is a marketplace that opens up a new horizon of business opportunities for referrers and salespersons. For more information, please visit Spini

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Hike messenger, one of India’s fastest growing internet companies has announced the introduction of Hike Direct,  a game-changing proposition that will revolutionize the way people communicate. A first in the world and first in the category feature—hike direct, allows users to chat, exchange stickers, transfer photos and heavy files of any type, things that users would regularly do on hike without the Internet & without incurring data charges.

Hike Direct allows mobile phones to connect with one another directly within a 100 meter radius completely by passing the telecom networks. Users can then chat and share files directly up to a speed of 40 Mbps with very low latency, which is comparable if not better than 4G speeds promised by telecom companies today. For example, exchanging 100 MB of data would take less than 10 seconds on hike direct, more importantly without incurring any data charges.

Speaking on the launch, Kavin Mittal, Founder & CEO hike messenger added

Today is the day we completely redefine messaging. Hike Direct has been built on breakthrough technology that adds a whole new dimension to messaging enabling hikers to chat and share files with their friends without the internet and without incurring any data charges. One can get speeds up to 40 Mbit/sec when chatting and sharing files through hike direct. Data or no data, hike will always work. It’s incredibly powerful.

The all – new ‘Hike Direct’ is built from the ground up with a new generation of network solutions and uses WiFi Direct technology systems that help establish peer to peer network connection between two phones.

To use hike direct, users simply need to open a chat with a friend and choose Hike Direct from the 3 dot menu on top right of the screen and hike does the rest. Hike automatically pairs up with the other phone and lets you chat and share files with your friends without the internet.

Users can get this feature by upgrading to the latest version of Hike, version 4.0.6 and above, which is available free on the Google Play Store starting today. Hike Direct on iOS, Windows to follow next year.

The company also announced that it crossed 70 million users last month with 20 billion messages being exchanged per month making it by far the 2nd largest messaging app in the country. An average user on hike spends over 140 minutes per week on the application.

The all new hike has recently been upgraded to 4.0 version with best in class features developed to deliver greater value to users such as news, hindi news bytes, localized stickers in 30 languages, automatic sticker suggestions, Group calling, Group chat upto 500 members, 100 MB file sharing and many more.

Hike’s Growth Story

  • Dec 2012 – Global launch
  • Feb 2013 – Messaging traffic grows 10X week on week
  • April 2013 – Hit the first 5M user milestone in just 4 months of its launch | Raised $7M from BSB
  • Feb 2014 – Hit the 15M user mark
  • April 2014 – Received $14M fresh funding from BSB
  • June 2014 – Crossed 20M user mark, launched first TVC
  • July 2014 – Hit #1 rank on App stores
  • August 2014 – Crossed 35M user mark, receives $65M fresh funding led by Tiger Global & BSB
  • November 2014 – Launches regional stickers on hike
  • January 2015 – Launched free Hike Calls
  • February 2015 – Launched Cricket Scores on hike
  • Aug 2015: Hike announces 20 billion messages per month and launched Hike News
  • Sep 2015: Launched Group Calling with upto 100 people

Do give Hike Direct a spin & share your experience in the comments section

|In: General|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

KeyPoint Technologies [KPT], a global linguistics innovator has announced the latest upgrade to its award winning product Adaptxt for Android and Adaptxt for iOS, its context-aware, multi-language keyboard for iPhone, iPod and iPad devices, free of cost. Adaptxt is the first iOS app to offer the largest language support with 115+ global languages which includes 26 Indic and 11 transliterated [English + Indic] languages and over 800 emojis.

Both Adaptxt for iOS and Android were recently nominated under the ‘Productivity’ category in Mobby Awards 2015. The awards celebrate the best apps for work and productivity on smartphones.


With the recent launch of Adaptxt, Apple device users in India can now communicate in 16 new Indic languages namely:

  1. Bhojpuri
  2. Bodo
  3. Dogri
  4. Kashmiri
  5. Konkani
  6. Maithali
  7. Manipuri
  8. Marwari
  9. Mewari
  10. Oriya
  11. Sinhala
  12. Rajasthani
  13. Sanskrit
  14. Sindhi
  15. Singlish
  16. Pashto

The upgrade also offers location based suggestions such as street names, landmarks, etc.

Sumit Goswami, CEO – KeyPoint Technologies said

We are thrilled to see Adaptxt for iOS and Android get short-listed under the Best Productivity app category by Mobby Awards 2015. Currently there are 4.8 million iOS users in India of which over 49 percent are less than 30 years of age. Adaptxt offers industry’s first location based suggestions and largest language support allowing young users in different parts of the country to interact in their native languages. This promotes greater digital inclusion thus making mobile technology a true enabler of change.

Key features of Adaptxt iOS App

  • Emoji Support : Supports 800+ emojis
  • Location-based suggestions : Provides suggestions based on your current or chosen location, such as street names and landmarks
  • 26 Indic Languages : Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Bodo, Dogri, English (India), Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Marwari, Mewari, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu
  • 11 Transliterated Languages : Manglish, Marathinglish, Punglish, Banglish, Tenglish, Tanglish, Singlish, Neplish, Odinglish, Hinglish, Kanglish
  • Alternative Keyboard Layouts : For some languages [QWERTY, AZERTY, DVORAK, and QWERTZ for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish; Bulgarian BDS; Punjabi Phonetic; and specific layouts for Scandinavian languages]
  • Personalized predictions : Based on writing style and context
  • Shortcuts : Use gestures to insert frequently used phrases

To download and experience the latest Adaptxt version, please visit the following link

About KeyPoint Technologies
KeyPoint Technologies, the creator of Xploree and Adaptxt is an award-winning global linguistics innovator that enables intelligent communication between humans to the connected world—beyond mobile devices. KeyPoint was founded in 2004 in Glasgow Scotland, an epi-center of linguistics. For more information, please visit KeyPoint Technologies

|In: Marketing|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

There’s a lot that makes India incredible, and there are some incredible feats that are ‘Made in India.’ Recently ASUS India unveiled a video titled Incredible Made in India on its Facebook page that takes a look at the historic feats that have distinguished the nation in the global arena.

Conceptualized & created by full-service digital agency BC Web Wise, the video goes on to reveal that the high-end ASUS Zenfones will now be Made in India.

ASUS India shared the video with press and on social media on Friday, 02nd October as it announced its local manufacturing plans, starting with the Zenfone 2 Laser, at a facility based in Sricity, Andhra Pradesh.

Inspired by the brand’s tagline In Search of Incredible, the core idea behind the video was to sensitize audiences and instill a sense of pride in all things ‘Incredible Made in India’.

The sand art video showcases several historic exploits and inventions by Indian individuals and institutions right from the invention of Zero, or building the world’s largest railway network, to the most economical Mars mission, and even Sachin’s 100 centuries in ODI cricket. It closes by adjoining ASUS India’s announcement to manufacture the Zenfone range in India.

The use of sand art was done to creatively emphasize the ‘incredible’ nature of India’s accomplishments through history while projecting its readiness as a manufacturing hub.

The ‘Incredible Made in India’ video has garnered more than 176,000 likes on ASUS India’s Facebook page.

About BC Web Wise

Founded in 2000 and led by Chaaya Baradhwaaj, BC Web Wise is a full service digital agency best known for its strategic brand solutions and world-class creatives. Recognized among India’s top digital agencies for six years in a row [The Economic Times, 2008 – 2013], BCWW is committed to excellence in digital marketing and ‘Empowering Brands Online.’ For more information, please visit BC Web Wise

|In: Events|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

As a pioneer in the e-learning space, WizIQ, one of the world’s largest online education platforms, will bring together global education leaders, innovators and visionaries on one common platform with its EdTech.Now conclave. To be held on October 15 at the Le Meridian Hotel in New Delhi, the event is expecting over 300 educators, visionaries, investors, ed-tech innovators, and media personnel.

EdTech.Now is held by WizIQ in exclusive collaboration with the prestigious Cambridge University Press India and software pioneer Microsoft, thought leaders in education and innovative technology respectively.

wiziq_logo

Meant to bring deep insights into the disruptive impact of technology on education, current trends, future developments, challenges, and opportunities through high quality content, EdTech.Now promises to be India’s premier global education conclave.

The event will see keynote speech and plenary sessions from industry leaders such as Vinod Dham [CEO and Co-founder of Acadgild & Founding MD of IndoUS Venture Partners] amongst other thought leaders discuss the future of education in the digital age.

Vinod Dham popularly known as the father of the Pentium processor and now an ed-tech entrepreneur said

Just like Smart Phones have changed the rules of Computer Industry and are making Personal Computers obsolete. On-line education, in not too distant a future, will obsolete thousands of colleges and universities as they exit today.

Ratnesh Jha, Managing Director, Cambridge University Press said

Digital adoption will play a major role in the Education space going forward and IT/digital platform will act as an enabler for publishers and content solution providers. Technology enabled pedagogical intervention will be the norm to shaping India of the 21st century.

High quality and well researched content, digital solutions, assessments, individualized and adaptive learning for the learning community and well-rounded support system/resources for teaching community are the key elements of importance, and Ed-Tech companies like WizIQ will play a major role in facilitating the reach of such solutions to millions more.

Cambridge University Press is happy to facilitate think tanks like EDTechNOW! that have the potential to make a larger impact through wider outreach for dissemination of high quality content and solutions

Speaking on the announcement, Harman Singh, Founder & CEO, WizIQ, commented

Technology today has disrupted the education industry to a great extent, metamorphosing the way education is now approached. With our EdTech.Now conclave, we look to bring together thought leaders, experts and pioneers in online education under one roof to share their deep insights and experience in order to chart the future of this field. Moreover, the involvement of industry leaders such as Cambridge University Press India and Microsoft as active partners in the conclave will make this event a benchmark in the field of online education in India.

WizIQ’s EdTech.Now will facilitate discussions and insight delivery on various matters pertaining to online education and the use of technology. With topics such as “Riding the Change – Challenges & opportunities for online education service providers”, “Workforce 2020 – Emerging trends & challenges in corporate learning” and Engaging the learner in the online world – Perspectives from educators and learners, EdTech.Now will be an apt platform and a must visit event for educators and administrators from the higher education sector, e-learning service providers, tech innovators, and content providers.

About WizIQ

Founded in 2007, WizIQ is one of the world’s largest cloud based education platforms. Over 400,000 educators have leveraged WizIQ to deliver learning services to 4 Million+ learners across 200 countries. WizIQ’s award winning Virtual Classroom solution that enables online delivery of live instructor-led learning, has received acclaim from education service providers from around the world.

The WizIQ Online Academy Builder represents an evolutionary leap in education technology by empowering education service providers to set up their own customized academies within minutes. Online Academy Builder is designed to increase learner engagement through cutting-edge features, such as mobile learning, video streaming, live online classroom, discussion boards, assessments, insights and analytics. The in-built e-commerce capability enables them to monetize their services and rapidly expand their reach to newer markets.

WizIQ is backed by Bertelsmann SE & Co., which runs Random House and Kaizen, a private equity fund focused on the education sector. For more information, please visit WizIQ

Image Credit – TeachThought

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Youwecan Ventures led by ace Cricketer Yuvraj Singh, has recently invested in SportyBeans, which is India’s largest and Premier Multi-Sport Program for children between the ages of 1.5 – 8 years. SportyBeans has developed a highly research backed sports and fitness curriculum for the program across nine popular ball sports, viz Soccer, Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, Hockey, Tennis, Cricket, Rugby and Golf; which is focused on creating a skills-driven, high-energy and fun-filled environment.

YouWeCan

Yuvraj understands the importance of physical fitness and sports involvement from an early age and SportyBeans is the ideal platform to provide this foundation to the young children of the Country. Yuvraj would also be leveraging his own knowledge and experience to co-design the course curriculum for SportyBeans. Thus, Yuvraj’s Association with the Brand would be unique as it would extend much beyond being just an investor.

Speaking on his decision to team up with SportyBeans, Yuvraj said

Sporty Beans is a unique platform to identify and develop interest in sports at an early age of 2 years to 8 years and hopefully it will help in creating a transformational impact on building next generation of sports persons in India

Having started its First Centre in 2010 and having enrolments of over 30,000 children till date , SportyBeans has now established a strong proof of concept with a sizeable presence across the country. With over 35 centres spread across 17 cities, SportyBeans currently caters to over 15,000 children a year and boasts of a highly profitable business model with a proven track record across its Franchise network.

SportyBeans is a new economy unique platform to target the wallet share of spending around children besides traditional K-12 education, apparel, toys, health care etc. Keeping this large target audience in mind, the brand is now looking at an aggressive growth plan which would see ~200 SportyBeans centers across India over the next 2 years. Catering to student strength of about 1,40,000 children in these centres, the brand is looking at revenues of over Rs. 80 crores.

Karan Sareen, Director at SportyBeans said

We have signed our first International Franchise in Mauritius and shall soon be announcing a Country Franchise in Malaysia as well.He further stated that this would be the first step towards a strong global presence as the brand looks to be present in 10 international locations within the next year, with talks already in progress in the Asia Pacific Region.

SportyBeans is the first brand in its space to transform its business by leveraging mobile technology as a platform wherein it allow users to make bookings online for not only the regular sessions, but also for personal coaching, in-school sessions and birthday parties at centre’s nearest to them.

With applications developed for both the Android and iOS platforms, SportyBeans aims at giving Parents a seamless avenue not only to monitor the progress of their child, but to experience the growth and development of their child first hand through technology thereby helping to create an entire social community through the mobile technology platform.

SportyBeans brings to the table a program which has been carefully cultivated and nurtured over the last 5 years with a very high degree of passion and expertise. Yuvraj Singh’s coming on-board will lend a higher sense of credibility to the overall program which will propel it to the next level.

About YouWeCan Ventures

YouWeCan is a 50 CR seed fund that is created to empower young entrepreneurs on their journey to build brands and successful business ventures and improve the life standard of society. More information at their website.

Image Credit – pixr8

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

A host of startups, Telangana government officials and Microsoft experts took part in a Smart City Startups Conclave to map smart solutions for cities in Telangana. In a first-ever effort of its kind, Microsoft facilitated the workshop, in the presence of Shri. K. Taraka Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for Information Technology and Shri. Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Secretary for Information Technology, Government of Telangana.

The discussion focused on solutions and apps in the areas of transport, healthcare, public safety, water and energy by startups from the Microsoft Ventures’ Portfolio which included Mybustickets, Celstream, iBot and FlamencoTech.

On this occasion, Shri. K. Taraka Rama Rao, Hon’ble Minister for Information Technology, Government of Telangana, also launched Accelerate India – Technology for Growth, a concept note with solutions available for smart cities from a total of 21 startups.

Microsoft_Telangana

Addressing the conclave, the Hon’ble Minister said

We are committed to the welfare of our citizens by expanding the opportunities for e-governance, citizen services and economic growth in Telangana. Developing smart cities is important to drive the state’s growth. With this focus, we are pleased to partner with Microsoft India to leverage its technology offerings and expertise to help transform Telangana into a sustainable and competitive state that cares for its citizens.

According to Shri. Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Secretary for Information Technology, Government of Telangana

We believe it is becoming increasingly important to leverage technology as an enabler of constant modernization. We are excited to partner with Microsoft to look at ways of transforming Telangana into a smart and competitive state that cares for its citizens.

Over the course of the next few months, we look forward to working with Microsoft and various start-up partners, on solutions across areas that will help us keep the citizen at the center of our development and fulfil our smart city vision.

Speaking on this occasion, Neeraj Gill, General Manager – Public Sector, Microsoft India, said

This platform offers a fresh perspective from entrepreneurs to enable sustainable development and scaling of smart cities with simple, easy to implement and low-cost solutions within the framework of our CityNext program.  Through Microsoft Ventures, CityNext now offers an opportunity to harness the enormous potential of entrepreneurs and develop citizen centric solutions using Microsoft technology.

Furthermore, with our local data centres which are now live, the Government and solution providers can use the massive computing power now available locally to accelerate e-governance, drive inclusive growth, innovation and digital transformation. We eagerly look forward to supporting the Government in its digitization efforts as well as a budding startup culture in the state.

About Microsoft CityNext

Microsoft CityNext is a people-first initiative to enable residents and city leaders to use technology to build a foundation for sustainable growth and prosperity. Microsoft has identified more than 40 solution areas across eight city domains — 1. Energy and water 2. Buildings; infrastructure and planning 3. Transportation 4. Public safety and justice 5. Tourism, recreation, and culture 6. Education 7. Health and 8. Social services and Government administration — that help address 90 percent of the challenges cities faces today.

CityNext addresses these areas through the vast and diverse Microsoft Partner Network of more than 430,000 technology experts across the globe. The CityNext initiative has been successfully implemented in cities across the world including Paris, Washington DC and Auckland.

Through its CityNext initiative, Microsoft India integrates information technology and human engagement to address infrastructural challenges and create new opportunities for economic growth and improved competitiveness overall. For more information, please refer CityNext

About Microsoft Ventures

Microsoft Ventures is a global initiative to help entrepreneurs build great companies. Working with startups at every stage of maturity, the initiative provides the tools, resources, and expertise startups need to succeed. Visit Microsoft Ventures to learn more about how Microsoft is helping the next generation of smart companies take flight.