Apple exploring app that can charge iPhone handsets using Wi-Fi routers

US tech giant Apple is experimenting with wireless charging technologies that could see users charge their iPhones with a Wi-Fi router.

“Apple’s patent application for ‘Wireless Charging and Communications Systems With Dual-Frequency Patch Antennas’ is a method for transferring power to electronic devices over frequencies normally dedicated to data communications,” appleinsider.com reported on Friday.

The patch antennas may be used for wireless power transfer at microwave frequencies or other frequencies and may be used to support millimetre wave communications.

The patch antennas may be used to form a beam steering array. The wireless circuitry may include adjustable circuitry to steer wireless signals associated with the antenna array.

“Apple’s patent application merely covers the theory behind wireless power transmission using existing communications link frequencies, and does not divulge specific operating details beyond the implementation of specialised beam forming patch antennas,” the report noted.

Apple is set to bring “True Color iPad Pro” screen technology to its smartphones for the first time.

“The screen technology uses advanced four-channel ambient light sensors to automatically adapt the colour and intensity of the display to match the light in your environment. Which means reading anywhere is more natural and comfortable – almost like looking at a sheet of paper,” Forbes.com reported earlier.

The full spectral sensing ambient light sensor will be added to the iPhone 7S, iPhone 7S Plus and iPhone 8.

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The 2017 agenda: Reliance Jio to soon venture into DTH, broadband services

Reliance Jio stormed into the telecom industry with the launch of ultra-affordable high speed 4G internet services combined with free voice calls, SMS and Jio apps. To keep the momentum going, Reliance Jio Infocomm is reportedly gearing up to expand the company’s product portfolio by venturing into diverse areas such as broadband services and Direct-to-Home (DTH) TV services.

ALSO READ: No end to data wars: Reliance Jio free offers to continue for 12-18 months

 

Things to expect from Reliance Jio in 2017

 

Reliance Jio FTTH broadband services

 

Reliance Industries plans to spend a further Rs 18,000 crore additional investment required for its fibre network as it expands Jio’s 4G reach, reports Business Standard. The Reliance Jio fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services has already been offering trials at a few locations and the services will expand to more cities soon.

 

Based on the information posted by users on social media networks, the Reliance Jio FTTH broadband services offers speed ranging from 70 Megabits per second (Mbps) to 100 Mbps. This is way faster than what the competition is currently offering in the market.

 

As with Reliance Jio, pricing would be a key factor for the success of Reliance Jio broadband services.

 

Reliance Jio DTH service

 

Reliance Jio is expected to launch direct-to-home (DTH) TV services, which will broadcast native TV channels and stream online content with the help of Jio’s broadband services.

 

The Reliance Jio DTH service would offer more than 350 channels – with at least 50 high-definition (HD) channels. Also, the DTH services will make use of Jio’s cloud capabilities to store content for later viewing purpose and therefore the user will get the flexibility to save the program directly on cloud, therefore, eliminating the need of external storage device.

 

Reliance Jio 4G VoLTE feature phone

 

Reliance Jio is reportedly working on a feature phone that will support 4G VoLTE services. The feature phone also purportedly sports hardware buttons to use the suite of Jio apps. The phone will be subsidized by Reliance and might retail at a value ranging from Rs 999 – Rs 1,500.

ALSO READ: Reliance lifts Jio investment above Rs 1.9 lakh cr after record year

Make in India arms too? Jaitley says new defence manufacturing policy soon

The government is in ‘advanced stages’ of formulating a new policy to increase domestic defence manufacturing and reduce dependence on the imported high-tech military, Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday.

“India is the world’s largest arms importer, spending some 1.8 per cent of its GDP on defence. It imports about 70 per cent of defence equipment, a proposition which the government wants to change,” Jaitley said at an event organised by industry body CII.

“We are in the advanced stages of formulating a policy where we can ensure that instead of just being buyers, on the strength of technological and other tie-ups, India also becomes a manufacturing economy,” he said.

Jaitley did not give additional details on the proposed policy. “The response that we have from domestic and international industry has been quite encouraging itself,” he added.

Additionally, he stated that there would not be any massive surprises in fixing tax rates under the new GST regime and that new rates under the nationwide tax regime, expected to be rolled out from July 1, not be “significantly different” from current levels.

He, however, added that companies should pass on to consumers the benefit of reduction in taxes under GST which will eliminate the current compounding effect of different central and state levies. The GST Council, headed by Jaitley and comprising representatives of all the states, is scheduled to meet in Srinagar on May 18-19 to finalise tax rates on different goods and services after unifying at least 10 indirect taxes into the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“We are now in final stages of fixing tariffs for different commodities. The formula under which it is being done has also been explained and therefore nobody is going to be taken by surprise, it’s not going to be very significantly different,” Jaitley said.

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Movie review: Baahubali 2 – The Conclusion is a colossal bore

Watching Baahubali 2 is like being in a purportedly romantic relationship with a psychotic person who keeps saying “if you can’t handle me at my worst, you don’t deserve me at my best”. The worst in this case is basically 150 minutes and the best is around 20 minutes. After a fairly decent first part, director S S Rajamouli seems to have gotten a carte blanche from his producers to let his imagination go unfettered in the second part.

He did make a wild and weird movie but it ends up being a distended mess. As suggested at the end of the first part, Baahubali 2 hits the ground running with the back story of Amarendra Baahubali (Prabhas) and how before his coronation as king of the ancient city of Mahishmati he meets the love of his life Deva Sena (Anushka) under the garb of a simpleton. The first 60 minutes of the movie are slow and the comedy track involving Subba Raju as the simple-minded cousin of Deva Sena barely evokes any laughs. Things pick up a little when Deva Sena realises the real person behind the unassuming guy in her midst and goes to his kingdom with him. A tale of mistaken identities leads to Baahubali’s near-real mother Sivagami (Ramya Krishna) make her son Bhallaladeva (Rana Daggubati) as the king.

Second half is how righteousness of both Sivagami and Baahubali lets Bhallaladeva unfurl a vortex of tragedies until his nephew (Mahendra Baahubali) returns to avenge for the deaths. For the last 22 months, we always knew that the antagonist is going to die a bad death in the hands of his blood-thirsty nephew. We have been waiting for the journey for a predestined destination but Rajamouli disappoints. He goes offtrack way too often and by the end we are left huffing and puffing that the whole fuss around Kattappa killing Baahubali is fairly predictable.

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Udan: Modi to flag off first RCS flight from Shimla today

Udan – An Alliance Air ATR-42 aircraft with 15 passengers will take off from Shimla airport on 11.15 am on Thursday heralding the launch of regional connectivity scheme (RCS).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Shimla-Delhi flight from Himachal Pradesh capital and launch two other services (Kadapa-Hyderabad and Nanded-Hyderabad) under the government policy, which aims to link unconnected towns with affordable fares.

The Kadapa-Hyderabad and Nanded-Hyderbad flights will be operated by TruJet and minimum tickets on these two routes is priced at Rs 1,000 one way.

“We will operate the ATR-42 aircraft five times a week between Delhi-Shimla. The demand is positive and seats on the route are filling up fast,” said Alliance Air chief executive officer C S Subbhaih. Alliance Air is a subsidiary of Air India.

Under the RCS  an airline is bound to sell 50% of the seats at subsidised fares and on Delhi-Shimla route one way ticket is priced at Rs 1,920. The ATR-42  aircraft has 48 seats but due to restrictions at the Shimla airport Alliance Air will only be able to fill 35 seats  to Shimla and 15 seats for its return leg to Delhi. The highest system fare on Delhi-Shimla route has been kept at Rs 20,000 one way.

While a total of 70 airports have been selected under the RCS, the launch from Shimla has a significance. Despite being a state capital, Shimla lacked air connectivity and a writ petition was filed in state high court demanding resumption of flights, which were suspended in 2012. The petition is currently being heard in the Supreme Court.

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Flipkart continues lead over Amazon but sales are still smartphone heavy

India’s largest e-commerce marketplace Flipkart continues to hold a 25-30 per cent lead over rival Amazon in terms of the gross merchandise value sold on its platform, but could face headwinds as a large portion of its sales is still driven by smartphones.

Flipkart’s sales during March clocked in at around Rs 3,200-3,300 crore, while rival Amazon managed to do just around Rs 2,400 crore in sales, according to a person with the knowledge who did not want to be named. The gap in terms of unit sales between the two companies was at around 15-20 per cent.

“Even though the gap in the number of units sold on both platforms isn’t that huge, Flipkart continues to hold a strong lead over Amazon in terms of GMV. This is because Flipkart continues to lead in the smartphone sector, which usually have a higher purchase value,” the person said.

Standalone sales for Flipkart’s platform clocked in at Rs 2,800 crore, slightly higher than Amazon, while the rest of the group companies Myntra, Jabong and eBay raked in around Rs 450 crore. From an annualised GMV run rate perspective Flipkart holds around a 25 per cent lead at $6 billion compared to Amazon’s $4.5 billion.

An Economic Times report on Thursday cited investors and analysts estimates who put Flipkart’s annualised GMV at $4 billion, but said that sources close to investor Tiger Global said that the company’s gross sales crosses $6 billion at the end of March 2017.

While Flipkart continues to have a strong lead over Amazon in India’s hotly contested $17 billion e-commerce market, it’s reliance on driving sales through high-cost smartphones could trip it. According to a Counterpoint report, Flipkart controls 57 per cent of the online smartphone market in the country, as opposed to Amazon’s 27 per cent.

“Amazon is building value in India by selling books, low value items to customers in tier two markets and through things like Prime. Flipkart continues to drive a large portion of its GMV from smartphones which can be disrupted very easily. It’s the same thing that happened to Snapdeal, look where they are now,” added the person.

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Veteran Bollywood star Vinod Khanna dies at 70

Vinod Khanna, the yesteryears Bollywood superstar, died at the age of 70 on Thursday. He was battling cancer.

He worked in more than 100 films.

He was an active politician, and a sitting Member of Parliament from Gurdaspur, Punjab. Vinod Khanna was born on 6 October, 1946.

He is survived by his wife Kavita Khanna, sons Rahul, Akshaye and Sakshi, and daughter Shraddha Khanna. Before marrying Kavita, Vinod Khanna was married to Getanjali but they later got divorced.

His polupar movies include Mere Apne, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Gaddaar (1973 film), Jail Yatra, Imitihaan, Inkaar, Kuchhe Dhaage, Amar Akbar Anthony, Rajput, Qurbani, Kudrat, Dayavan, Kaarnama,Suryaa: An Awakening and Jurm.

Vinod Khanna received the Filmfare award in the best supporting actor category for Haath Ki Safaai, and in 1999 he received the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award, and again in 2007 he won a lifetime achievement award at the Zee Cine Awards.

In late 2016 and early 2017, news about his detoriating health started coming in, this kept him away from a public eye. In his last days he was surrounded by all his children and wife Kavita.

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It’s a shame Indians don’t want to pay taxes: SC talks tough on Aadhaar

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked why there was no objection from lawmakers on the government’s decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for making permanent account number (PAN) cards, a move which was given effect by the latest budget from July 1.

“542 persons are sitting in Parliament, why do they not object to it? If they are not objecting, why should we go into it,” a Bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said.

When it was told that the Centre has earlier made a statement in the apex court that it would not make Aadhaar mandatory, the Bench said, “They cannot be bound by it. It cannot preclude Parliament from enacting a statutory provision.”

The court was hearing three petitions challenging the constitutional validity of section 139AA of the Income Tax (IT) Act. Section 139AA, introduced through the latest Budget and the Finance Act, 2017, provides for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar or enrolment ID of Aadhaar application form for filing of I-T returns and making application for allotment of PAN with effect from July 1, 2017.

The Bench also observed that tax evasion existed in India and it was a “shame” that citizens do not want to pay taxes.

The court said there was no doubt that Aadhaar should be voluntary and observed since tax evasion existed, the government could bring in new statute to stop such “leakage”.

Defending the Centre’s stand to make Aadhaar mandatory for filing of income tax returns and to apply for PAN, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi referred to around 10 lakh fake PAN cards and said Aadhaar was the only system which could prevent duplication or fake cards.

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MCD results: AAP loses, cries foul over EVMs as BJP wins big in Delhi

MCD results 2017 – The BJP was on Wednesday won 184 of the 270 seats, leaving the Aam Aadmi Party well behind on 46 seats with the Congress suffering another dismal day. The BJP also swept all three corporations. The BJP said it will not celebrate its victory in the civic polls but “dedicate” it to the 25 CRPF troopers who died in a Maoist attack in Sukma.

“We won’t celebrate this victory and will dedicate it to the CRPF personnel who lost their lives in the Sukma Maoist attack,” Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Manoj Tiwari told reporters.

Here is the complete winners list by ward and party:

South Delhi Municipal Corporation

The BJP won 70 wards, AAP 16 and Congress 12. Here’s the break-up:

BJP: Madipur, Punjabi Bagh, Raghubir Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Vishnu Garden, Hari Nagar A, Pratap Nagar, Keshopur, Mahavir Nagar, Janakpuri West, Janakpuri South, Milap Nagar, Vikaspuri, Sainik Enclave, Vikas Nagar, Mohan Garden North, Uttam Nagar, Bindapur, Dabri, Sagarpur West, Kakraula, Dwarka A, Dwarka B, Isapur, Raj Nagar, Dwarka C, Mahipalpur, Madhu Vihar, Mahavir Enclave, Sadh Nagar, Palam, Lajpat Nagar, Kasturba Nagar, Kotla Mubarakpur, Vasant Kunj, Dakshin Puri, Sangam Vihar B, Pushp Vihar, Khanpur, Greater Kailash, Chitaranjan Park, Molarband, Hari Nagar B, Jaitpur, Om Vihar, Madanpur Khadar East, Madanpur Khadar West, Mohan Garden South, Chhawla, Gopal Nagar, Roshanpura, Hauz Khas, Malviya Nagar, Vasant Vihar, Mehrauli, Said Ul Ajaib, Bhati, Tughlakabad Extension, Sangam Vihar E, Sri Niwas Puri, Kalkaji, Harkesh Nagar, Tughlakabad, Safdarjung Enclave, Raja Garden, R.K. Puram, Munirka, Chhatarpur, Sagarpur East and Pul Pehladpur

AAP: Tagore Garden, Tilak Nagar, Sitapuri, Bapraula, Manglapuri, Matiala, Bijwasan, Lado Sarai, Tigri, Deoli, Madangir, Chirag Delhi, Abul Fazal Enclave, Hastsal, Sangam Vihar C and Sangam Vihar D

Congress: Sarita Vihar, Badarpur, Aya Nagar, Andrews Ganj, Sidharth Nagar, Ranhola, Subhash Nagar, Khyala, Zakir Nagar, Govind Puri, Nangli Sakrawati and Daryaganj

INLD: Dichaon Kalan

Samajwadi Party: Ghuman Hera

Independents: Sangam Vihar A, Kapashera, Nawada and Najafgarh

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No end to data wars: Reliance Jio free offers to continue for 12-18 months

The free schemes and recharge options that Reliance Jio is offering to its customers is likely to continue for the next 12-18 months, which means other telecom services providers like Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL will have to step up efforts to counter Jio’s strategy.

Jio’s tactic would lead to pressure on the average revenue per user (ARPU) of incumbent operators, US bank Morgan Stanley said in a report. It added that ARPU for Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India has been effectively capped at about Rs 300 due to Jio’s current offers, a report published in The Economic Times said.

Jio prepaid plans start from as low as Rs 19, and go up to Rs. 9,999, while postpaid plans are available at Rs. 309, Rs. 509, and Rs. 999 denomination. Jio launched its 4G service commercially on September 5, 2016 for free and crossed 50 million subscribers in just 83 days, and 100 million in 170 days, adding at an average rate of 6 lakh subscribers per day.

The company said that in terms of data usage it “has become the largest network globally” and plans to add one lakh mobile sites in coming months to double the network size.

The Morgan Stanley report mentioned that Jio, which started services on September 5, has netted 6 per cent of the country’s wireless subscribers and aims to get at least 15 per cent.

Reliance Jio extended the free usage period for Jio services to its existing and new customers till March 31, 2017. Jio reached the 100 million user mark in the first 170 days, adding consumers at an average of 600,000 a day.

Meanwhile, Reliance Jio Infocomm on Monday posted a net loss of Rs 22.50 crore for the six months ended March 31, 2017, as the company provided free voice and data services since its launch on September 5, 2016. The loss pertained to not just free voice and data services unleashed by its brand reliance Jio, but also on account of employee cost, finance cost, depreciation and other expenses.

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