Airtel may launch 4G services in Kolkata next month

Airtel's is likely to launch it in Kolkata circle in the first half of April. Citing unnamed sources, Telecom Talk reports that Airtel may launch LTE-TDD based wireless broadband services in the first half of April, 2012 in Kolkata. It further reports that ZTE will assist Airtel as the equipment partner, while Indus Towers will be providing towers for the 4G services. The site also points out that Airtel may install small cells at different places of the city to provide better coverage. Also, the roll-out of LTE will only be available in select pockets of the city. It may be recalled that Airtel had won spectrum for high-speed wireless broadband service (Broadband Wireless Access spectrum) in four circles namely Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka . Airtel was allocated 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 GHz frequency band. In the same auction, Reliance Infotel had won a pan-India BWA spectrum and was given a 20MHz band. RIL has been previously rumoured to launch its 4G services with an ultra low-cost tablet. Meanwhile, Airtel, which has the largest subscribers base in India, is likely to launch its 4G services with new dongles and tablets.

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Android Market is now Google Play Store

[caption id="attachment_1198" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Google Play"][/caption] Google Inc is renaming its online storefront for music, books and digital goods, its latest move to raise its profile in the market for electronic content sales and to better compete with Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc. The company has retired the Android Market name for its store that sells apps, videos, music and electronic books on the Web and on mobile devices. From Tuesday, the store will be rebranded as the Google Play Store. The change is designed to make it clearer to consumers that Google offers a broad catalogue of content in addition to the apps programmed for smartphones and tablets based on its Android operating system. The name is being introduced three and a half years after Google launched its Android Market as a central outlet for consumers to download the mobile apps created for the growing number of Android-based smartphones. Android is the world's No.1 smartphone operating system, used in smartphones sold by Motorola , Samsung  and HTC, among others. There are more than 450,000 Android-compatible apps available from third-party software developers versus 550,000 apps available for Apple iOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad. In the past year and a half, Google has expanded the menu of offerings in the Android Market to include digital books, music and videos - markets where Apple and Amazon have robust businesses. Apple said in October that more than 16 billion songs have been downloaded from its iTunes store. Amazon said last year that it sells more digital books than print books. Google's variety of outlets for selling different types of digital content - consumers could purchase electronic books at a special Google books website as well as on the Android Market website - was confusing for consumers. And the applications for consumers to play music and videos, or read the books they purchased also had different names, creating further confusion, he said. On Tuesday, Google's various media applications will all feature the Play branding as part of their names. Although Google Play is still not available for the Indian Audience for some aspects, games and apps are easily available at the given discounts.

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Yahoo preparing layoffs, could affect thousands

Yahoo Inc's new chief executive is preparing a significant restructuring of the Internet company, including layoffs that could cut thousands of employees from its payroll. The moves could be announced as soon as the end of the month and would represent the first major changes under CEO Scott Thompson, the former PayPal president who took the top job at Yahoo in January. The changes at the struggling Web pioneer, which recently hired the Boston Consulting Group, will focus on its products group, as well as on research, marketing and public relations and businesses that are not core to the company. Yahoo, whose revenue slid by more than a fifth last year, had 14,100 employees at the end of 2011. The company fired CEO Carol Bartz in September and has been undergoing a "strategic review" since then that could include spinning of some of its Asian assets and accepting a minority investment in the company. Meanwhile, activist hedge fund ThirdPoint has announced plans to install its own slate of directors on Yahoo's board.

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Siri Competetor, Google Assistant to be released later this year

Google has been taking the popularity of Apple's voice assistant quite seriously. Late last year, Google's Project Majel was revealed, which is said to be much more than just a voice assistant, and obviously a competitor to Apple's Siri. Siri competitor could possibly launch in the fourth quarter of 2012. However, it is yet uncertain and the release date could be changed. The company is working on Artificial Intelligent technology christened the 'Google Assistant.' The Android team is developing a voice-powered 'do-engine', which will be powered by Google's own search engine, Google+ social network and Google +1. Apple is also geared up and all set to release new multi-platform Siri, probably next week, along with the iPad 3 release. Earlier Apple had claimed that they had no plans to bring Siri to other Apple devices. Furthermore, Apple plans to integrate Siri into Apple TV and also other iOS devices. Rumours are rife that the Google assistant will not be a standalone app. The company may release API for developers to integrate it to all apps. Siri had created a stir in the tech world after its launch, with the latest iPhone 4S. The Android market did get some voice assistant apps soon after and the most talked about was Iris, which when spelt in reverse order read 'Siri.' Earlier this year, Google was seen pulling the plug off the fake Siri app that had entered the Android Market. This app called itself the 'official' Siri app for the Android, but was soon taken off by Google. It isn't just Android that is bowled over by a voice assistant, the newest entrant into the Windows Phone marketplace is Ask Ziggy - personal voice assistant.

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Yahoo! now offers content in Malayalam

Yahoo! has teamed up with Malayala Manorama, leading Malayalam daily to offer digital content in Malayalam to users in India. The partnership brings digital content in Malayalam to 37 million Malayalam speaking people across the world through their co-branded property, malayalam.yahoo.com. Malayalam on Yahoo! India offers local, national and global news across genres of Politics, Sports, Business, Governance, Utility and Entertainment. Within genres there are sub-genres of stories available. For example, under Utility and Entertainment, users will also find information and stories in the Education, Motoring, Health, Religion & Spirituality and Astrology categories. Furthermore, Movie, Music, and Weekend features from Manorama Online will also feature on this destination. A report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (AIMAI) called the ICube report states that the Indian language audience is growing at a rate of nearly 40 percent per year and the next wave of digital audience in India is expected to emerge from the non-English speaking population. These statistics indicate that there is a large base of Internet users in India who are keen to access content in their own regional language. This is Yahoo!'s fifth offering of an Indian language for delivering content. The other four are Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali. Yahoo! Mail, however is already available in six Indian languages, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu and Gujarati. To follow suit, it would make sense if Yahoo! Mail were available in Malayalam too. Yahoo! added Bengali to its language base, back in early February. This indicates that they are not only keen to grab a large user base in regional India, but also want to do it as quickly as possible. Like with Malayalam, they added Bengali content in partnership with a Bengali daily, the Anandabazar Patrika (ABP).

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